J[/fedioal Thoughts 



^j 




e. 




MEDICAL THOUGHTS 



OF 



SHAKESPEARE 



By B. RUSH FIELD, M. D. 

MEMBER OF THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY 
OF NEW YORK. 



SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 



0^ 



E ASTON, PA. : 

ANDREWS & CLIFTON, PUBLISHEES. 

1885. 






TO THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 



pi^EfACE TO SECOIMD EDIJION- 



If any old lacly, knight, priest or physician, 
Should condemn me for writing a second edition ; 
If good Madam Sqnintnni my work should abuse, 
May I venture to give her a. smack of my muse ? 

AnMei/'s Xew Bath GnUh. p. 100. 

The occasion is taken to acknowledge the kind consideration 
tliat the first edition of this little work has received. This 
edition appears in a thoroughly revised and much enlarged 
form ; to what extent, may^ be judged by the fact that chapters 
on The Physician, Surgery, Physiology, Anatomy and Phar- 
macy have been added, together with many allusions to the 
other medical subjects, making an increase of over four hundi'ed 
quotations. It has been impossible to resist the temptation of 
adding a few medical thoughts from other authors, which will 
be found under their appropriate heads. The labor necessary 
to accomplish -this has not interfered in any way with profes- 
sional duties ; it being a task entirely of the leisure hours of 
the night. 

Eastox, Pennsylvania, Juuc, 1885. 



CONTENTS 



PART I. 
The Physician, - - - .----' 

PART II. 
Practice of Medicine, ------- 1-^ 

Diseases of Nervous System, 13 ; of Circulatory System, 22 ; of Respiratory 
System, 25 ; of Digestive System, 26 ; of Secretory System, 29. 
Fevers and other General Diseases, 32. Action of 
Jledicines, 37. Miscellaneous- 
Age and Death, 43. 



PART III. 
Surgery, - - - - 

Surgery and the Surgeon, 49. Syphilis, 50. Diseases of the Eye, 53. 
Wounds, 53. iliscellaneous, 55. 

PART IV. 
Obstetrics, ------ 

Marriageable Age, 59. Fecundation, 62, Character of Offspring, 63. 
Pregnancy, 64. Labor, 66. Miscellaneous, 71. 

PART V. 
Physiology. ----"■■■ 

Of the Circulation of the Blood, 73. Of the Digestive Proce.ss, 78. 
Miscellaneous, 80. 

PART VI. 
Anatomy. ----■''"' 

PART VII. 
Pharmacy. - - ---"""" 



49 



5!) 



73 



83 



85 






Medical Thoughts of Shakespeare. 



PART I. 

THE PHYSICIAN. 



HAKESPEARE'S education was not, by any means, hedged 
in by plots and characters ; besides these, his mighty mind 
seems to have teemed with the knowledge of languages, medicine, 
law and court etiquette. It is wonderful that one brain could shine 
forth such a vast variety, and surprising that he has even gone into 
the minutiie of the different avenues of learning through which 
he has stridden. Shakespeare paid considerable attention to 
medicine, and has furnished some of the finest specimens of the 
medical character that have ever been drawn by any writer. 
His Cerimon, in Pericles, is a most noble one. He speaks for him- 
self: 

'Tis known, I ever 

Have studied physic, through v?hich secret art. 

By turning o'er authorities, I have 

(Together with ray practice,) made familiar 

To me and to my aid, the bless'd infusions 

That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones ; 

And I can speak of the disturbances 

That nature works, and of her cures ; which doth give me 

A more content in course of true delight 

Than to be thirsty after tottering honour. 

Or tie my treasure up in silken bags 

To please the fool and death. 

Act III., Se. II. 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 



And others speak of him : 

Hundreds call themselves 
Your creatures, who by yon have been restored : 
And not yonr knowledge, your personal pain, but even 
Your purse, still open, hath built lord Cerimou 
Such strong renown as time shall ne'er decay. 

Act III., Sc. II. 

' Dowden says, " Cerimon, who is master of the secrets of nature, 
who is liberal in his ' learned charity,' who held it ever 

'Virtue and cunning were endowments greater 
Than nobleness and riches,' 

is like a first study of Prospero ;" while Furnivall thinks that 
he represents to some extent the famous Stratford physician, Dr. 
John Hall, who married Shakespeare's eldest daughter Susanna. 

What an excellent physician was Gerard de Narbon, Helena's 
father, who is referred to in All's Well : 

This young gentlewoman had a father, whose skill was almost as great as 
his honesty ; had it stretched so far, would have made Nature immortal, and 
death should have play for lack of work. Would, for the king's sake, he were 
living! I think it would be the death of the king's disease. * * * * 
He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his right to be so. * * * 
The king * * '" spoke of him admiringly and mournfully : he was skill- 
ful enough to have lived still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality. 

AetI.,Sc.I. 

How long is't, count, 
Since the physician at your father's died ? 
If he were living. I would try him yet; — 
* * -;:- * * the rest have worn me out. 
With several applications : nature and sickness 

Debate it at their leisure. 

Act. /., Sc. IL 

My father's skill, which was the greatest of his profession. 

Act /., Sc. in. 

Another worthy phj^sician is to be found in Cymbeline. Cor- 
nelius argues with the queen against her designs, and failing in 
this he completely thwarts her murderous intentions by giving 
her a false compound. « 



THE PHYSICIAN. 

Qneen. Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs? 

Cor. * * * I beseech your grace, without ofience. 

My conscience bids me ask, — wherefore you have 
Commanded of me these most poisonous compounds, 
Which are the movers of a languishing death ; 
But though slow, deadly ? 

-;f ******* * 

Your highness 
Shall from this practice but make hard your heart: 
Besides, the seeing these effects will be 
Both noisome and infectious. 
**•;;-****** 
{Aside.'] I do suspect you, madame ; 

But you shall do no harm. 

* -:;- * I (Jo not like her. She doth think she has 
Strange ling'ring poisons: I do know her spirit. 
And will not trust one of her malice with 
A drug of such damn'd nature. Those she has 
Will stupify and dull the sense awhile ; 
****** but there is 
No danger in what show of death it makes, 
More than the locking up the spirits a time, 
To be more Iresh, reviving. She is fool'd 
With a most false etfect ; and I the truer 

So to be false with her. ^ 

Act /., Sc. V. 

The queen, sir, very oft importun'd me 

To temper poisons for her ; still pretending 

The satisfaction of her knowledge only 

In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs. 

Of no esteem : I, dreading that her purpose 

Was of more danger, did compound for her 

A certain stuff, which, being ta'en, would cease 

The present power of lile ; but in short time 

All offices of nature should again 

Do their due function. 

Act V.,Sc. V. 

Macbeth supplies us with a wise member of the profession, 
who, at a time w^hen charlatans without number were promising 
to cure every malady, sees clearly that Lady Macbeth's disease 
is beyond his power, and so informs Macbeth. 

This disease is beyond my practice : 
****** infected minds 



MEDICAL TIlOTfJUTs OF SlIAKEST'EARE. 

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. 
More needs she the diviue than the physician : 

Iveniove from her the means of all annoyance, 
And still keep eyes upon her. 

Ad J'., St: I. 

Kinfi Mach. How does your patient, doctor? 
Doct. Not so sick, my lord, 

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, 

That keep her from her rest. 
Kiiif/ 3l(tch. Cure her of that: 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd ; 

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ; 

Raze out the written tnmbles of the brain ; 

And, with some sweet oblivions antidote. 

Cleanse the stuff 'd bosom of that perilous stuff 

Which weighs upon the heart ? 
Dort. Therein the patient 

Must minister to himself 

Khif/ Much. Throw physic to the dogs, 

I'll none of it. 

3Tacheth,Ar( J'.,Sc. III. 

In Kinuj Lear also appears a physician worthy of the name. 
The last scene of the fourth act shows his excellent skill in treat- 
ing Lear's case. Dr. Bucknill, of England, in writing of it 
twenty-five years ago, says : "We confess, almost with shame, 
that although near two centuries and a half have passed since 
Shakespeare thus wrote we have very little to add to his method 
of treating the insane as thus ]>ointed out." 

Dr. Butts, in Henry VIII, and Dr. Cains, in Merry Wives, 
play rather unimportant parts. He compliments the profession 
by putting this speech in the mouth of a madman : 

Tlmon to Banditti : 

Trust not the physician ; 
His antidotes are poison, and he slays 
More than you rob. 

Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. III. 

And bringing this one from the lips of an ignorant prostitute: 

Nay, will you cast away your child on a fool and a physician ? 

Merry Wives, Act III., Sc. I]\ 

10 



THE PHYSTCTAN. 

Eefercncc to the physician is frequently" made throuf^liont his 

works. 

Cor. The queen is dead. 

('//III. Whom worse than a physician 

Would this report become. But I consider, 

By med'cine life may be prolong'd, yet death 

Will seize the doctor too. 

Cymheline, Act V., Sc. V. 

"■•■ * "' ■" doctor-like, controlling skill. 

So)inet.% LXVI. 

We * * * may not be so credulous of cure. 
When our most learned doctors leave us. 

AlVs Well, Acf II., Se. L 

Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow 

Upon tlie Ibul disease. 

King Ia((v, Acf L, Sc. I. 

Thou speak'st like a physician, Helicanus; 

That minister'st a potion iiuto me, 

That thou would'st tremble to receive thyself. 

Pericle><, Ad I., Sc. 11 

The patient dies while the physician sleeps. 

Liicrece. 

The physician 

Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, 

Hath left me. 

Sonnels, CXL VII. 

Testy sick men, when their deaths be near. 
No news but health from their phy.sicians know. 

Sonnets, CXL. 

His friends, like phy.sicians, thrice give him over. 

Timon of Athens, Act III, Sc. III. 

He is the wiser man, master doctor; he is a curer of souls, and you a cnrer 

of bodies. 

3Ierry Wives, Ad II, Sc. NT. 

A poor phj'sician's daughter my wife ! Disdain 

Rather corrupt me ever. 

AWs Well, Ad II., Sc. III. 

Doctors, less famoiis for their cures than fees. 

Burn)!— Don ,7iian, Cnnlo XIV., Veme XLVIII. 

11 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 



Like a port sculler, one physician plies 
And all his art and all his skill he tries ; 
But two physicians, like a pair of oars, 
Conduct you faster to the Stygian shores. 



Tliis is tlie way physicians mend or end us, 

Secundum arteiii : but althongli we sneer 

In health— when ill, we call them to attend us 

Without the least propensity to jeer; 

While that " hiiilii.< •luaxime dcjlciulas" 

To be flUed up by spade or niattoek, 's near. 

Instead of gliding graciously down Lethe, 

We tease mild Baillie, or soft Abernethy. 

Byron — Dun Juan, Canlo X, Verne XLII. 

(xod and the doctor we alike adore. 
But only when in danger, not before ; 
The dariger o'er, both are alike requited, 
God is forgotten, and the doctor slighted. 



The doctor says so ***** * 
******* they sometimes 
Are soothsayers and always cunning men. 
Which doctor was it ? 

Beti Jonson — Magnetic Lady, Acl IT., Sc. I. 

A side thrust at the experimenters in the profession is found 

in Cymbeline. 

I do know her spirit, 
And will not trust one of her malice with 
A drug of such danin'd nature. Those she has 
Will stupify and dull the sense awhile ; 
Which first, perchance, she'll prove on cats and dogs, 

Then afterwards up higher. Act I., Sc. J\ 

I can smile, and murder whiles I smile. 

Henry VI.— 3d, Act III., Sc. II. 

He has in several plays shown his contempt for the "pratini;- 
mountebank " or " doting wizard." 

They brought one Pinch, a hungry, lean-fac'd villain, 

A mere anatomy, a mountebank, 

A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune-teller; 

A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking wretch, 

A living dead man : this pernicious slave, 

Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer, 

And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse, 

And with no face, as 'twere, out-facing me, 

Cries out I was possessed Comedy of Errors, Act V., Sc- I. 

I say we must not 
So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope. 
To prostitute our past-cure malady 
To empirics ; or to dissever so 
Our great self and our credit, to esteem 
A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. 

AlVs Well, Act II., Sc. I. 

12 



PART 11. 

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 

Shakespeare's maladies are many and the symptoms very well 
defined. Diseases of the nervous system seem to have been a 
favorite study, especially insanity ; Lear, Timon, and Hamlet 
being excellent examples. 

And lie * * * (a short tale to make), 
Fell into a sadness; then into a fast; 
Thence to a watch ; thence into a weakness; 
Thence to a lightness; and, by this declension 
Into the madness wherein now he raves. 

Hamlet, Act II., Sc. II. 

He took me by the wrist and held me hard ; 

Then goes he to the length of all his arm ; 

And with his other hand thus o'er his brow, 

He falls to such perusal of my face, 

As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so; 

At last, — a little shaking of mine arm, 

And thrice his head thus waving up and down. 

He raised a sigh so piteous and profound, 

That it did seem to shatter all his bulk. 

And end his being : That done, he lets me go : 

And, with his head o'er his shoulder turn'd. 

He seem'd to find his way without his eyes; 

For out o' doors he went without their help. 

And, to the last, bended their light on me. 

Hamlet, Act II., Sc. I. 

Alas, how is it with you. 
That you do bend your eye on vacancy. 
And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? 
Forth at your eyes yovir spirits wildly peep ; 
And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, 
Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, 
Starts up, and stands on end. 

Hamlet, Act III, Sc. IV. 

13 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown ! 

The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword : 

The expectancy and rose of the fair state, 

The glass of fashion and the mould of form, 

The observed of all observers,— quite, quite down! 

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched. 

That snck'd the honey of his music vows, 

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, 

Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh ; 

That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth, 

Blasted with ecstasy. 

Hamlet, Act Ilf., Sc. I. 

There's something in his sonl, 
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood ; 
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose. 
Will be some danger. 

Homlct, Act III., Se. I. 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd ; 
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ; 
Raze out the written troubles of the brain ; 
And, with some sweet oblivious antidote. 
Cleanse the stulf 'd bosom of that perilous stuff 
Which weighs upon tiie heart? 

Macbeth, Act V., Sc. HI. 

****** Infected minds 

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. 

********* 

Remove from her the means of all annoyance, 
And still keep eyes upon her. 

3Incheth, Act V., Sc. I. 

Infirmity doth still neglect all office, 

Whereto our health is bound ; we are not ourselves, 

When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind 

To suffer with the body : I'll forbear ; 

And am fall'n out with my more headier will, 

To take the indispos'd and sickly fit 

For the sound man. 

King Lear, Act II., Sc. IV. 

This is in thee a nature but infected ; 
A poor unmanly melancholy, sprung 

From change of fortune. 

Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. III. 

14 



PRACTICE Oh' JIEDICINE. 

The mere want of gold, and the falling- from of his friends, drove him into 
til is melancholy. 

Timo)i of Alheiis, AH 71'., Sr. III. 

Tell him * •■ ■• - - * 

* * * that his lady mourns at his disease : 

Persuade him that he hath been a lunatic. 

Tamiiuj of the Sfireir, Jnd., Sc. I. 
-X- ;: -X- Being lunatic 
He ru.sh'd into my hou^e, ana took perforce 
My ring away. 

Comedy of Errors, Aet IF., Se. III. 

These dangerous unsafe lunes. 

U'inler'.s Tttle, Aet 11, ,Se. II 

With great imagination. 
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death, 
And, winking, leap'd into de.strnction. 

Heiiri/ IV— 2(1 Aet. I, Se. Ill 

Oft the eye mistakes, tlie brain being troubled. 

Venus (1)1(1 Adonis. 

To see his nobleness ! 
Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, 
He straight declin'd, droop'd. took it deeply; 
Fasten'd and tix'd the shame on 't in himself; 
Threw off his .spirit, his appetite, his sleep, 
And downright languish 'd. 

Winter'.'^ Tale, Act II., Se III 

His siege is now 
Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds 
With many legions of strange fantasies, 
Which, in their throng and press to that last hold. 
Confound themselves. 

Kin;/ John, Aet v., Se. VII. 

Shakespeare certainly had the true idea of the great value of 
sleep, and he also knew of its importance in the treatment of 
brain diseases. Sleep serves as an excellent stimukxnt, promot- 
ing the growth of the brain. The infant, during the first ten 
weeks of its life, sleeps most of the time and hence dui-ing that 
period its brain is overdeveloped in proportion to its size. 

Our foster-nurse of nature is repose. 

The which he lacks ; that to provoke in him, 

15 



^MKDICAL TIIOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 



Are mauy simples operative, whose power 
Will close the eye of anguish. 

Kiiui Lear, Ad IV., Sc. IV. 

O sleep, gentle sleep, 
Nature's soft nurse, 

Khuj Henry JV—2(l, Ad ITT., Sr. I. 

Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care. 
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath. 
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course. 
Chief nourisher of life's feast. 

BImheih, Ad J I., Sv. I. 

Oppressed nature sleeps: — 
This rest might yet have balni'd thy broken senses, 
Which, if convenient will not allow, 
Stand in hard cure. 

Kitif/ Lear, Ad III., Si: VI. 

Man's rich restorative ; his balmy batli, 
That supplies, lubricates and keeps in play 
The various movements of that nice machine. 
Which asks such frequent periods of repair. 

YiiiiiKj's Ml/Id TItoiiiilila. 

Music was held us one of the remedies in the treatment of 
insanity. It plays an important part in King Lear, (TV-VIT), 
and finds mention as a remedy in other plays. 

This music mads me, let it sound no more ; 
For, though it have holp madmen to their wits. 
In me it .seems it will make wise men mad. 

Rivhurd II., Ad. v., ,SV. V. 

Let there be no noi.se made, my gentle friends ; 
Unless some dull and favourable hand 
Will whisper music to my weary spirit. 

Henry IV— M, Ad IV., Sc IV. 

Your honour's players, hearing your amendment, 
Are come to play a pleasant comedy. 
For so your doctors hold it very meet. 
Seeing too much sadness hath congeal'd your blood, 
And melancholy is the nur.se of frenzy ; 
Therefore, they thought it good you hear a play. 
And frame your mind to mirth and merriment, 
Which bars a thousand harms, and lengthens life. 

Taming of the Shrew, Ind., Sc. II. 

16 



PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 

Your physicians have expressly charg'd, 
In peril to incur your former malady, 
That I should yet absent me from your bed. 

* Tftminf/ of the Shreir, Ind., <SV. //. 

This closing with him tits his lunacy : 
"Whate'er I forge to feed his brain-sick fits, 
Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches. 

Titufi Andronictts, Act 7'., Sc. IT. 

Dispute not with her, she is lunatic. 

Richard III., Act I.. Sc III. 

* * Deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do. 

.Is You Like If, Act III, Sc. IT. 

Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd, 
Kept in a dark house ? 

TircJfth Nit/ht, Act V., Sc. I. 

It is the mynde that makes Rood or ill. 

That maketh wretch or happie, rich orpoore. 

Spoiser — F:m'r Qiirenr, Xf-TX. 

Yet they do act 
Such antics and such pretty lunacies 
That spite of sorrow they make you smile. 



Grows lunatic and childish for his son. 



Bckkrr. 
k'yd. 



When slow Disease, and all her host of pains, 
Chills the warm tide which flows along the veins ; 
When Health, affrighted, spreads her rosy wing, 
And flies with every clianging gale of Spring ; 
Not to the aching frame alone confined, 
Unyielding jiangs assail the drooping mind. 

Bjimn — Ch ild ish B (■collect ion s. 

The accuracy with which Shakespeare has written of apoplexy 
is justly alluded to in Bell's Principles of Surgery, (1815, Yol. II, 
p. 557) : "M}^ readers will smile, perhaps, to see me quoting 
Shakespeare among phj^sicians and theologists ; but not one of 
all their tribe, populous though it be, could describe so exquis- 
itel}^ the marks of apoplexy, conspiring with the struggles for 
life, and the agonies of suffocation, to deform the countenance of 
the dead : so curiously does our poet present to our conception 
all the signs from which it might be inferred that the good duke 
Humfrey had died a violent death."' 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

See, how the blood is settled in his face ! 

Oft have I seeu a timely-parted ghost, 

Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless, 

Being all descended to the labouring heart ; 

"Who, in the conflict that it holds with death, 

Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy ; 

Which with the heart, there cools, and ne'er returneth 

To blush and beautify the cheek again. 

But see, his face is black and full of blood ; 

His eye-balls further out than when he liv'd, 

Staring full ghastly like a strangled man : 

His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretch'd with struggling ; 

His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd 

And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdu'd. 

Look on the sheets, his hair, you see, is sticking ; 

His well-proportion 'd beard made rough and rugged, 

Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodg'd. 

It can not be but he was murder'd here ; 

The least of all these signs were probable. 

Henry VI— 2d, Ad III., Sc. II. 

Suddenly a grievous sickness took him. 

That made him gasp, and stare, and catch the air. 

Henry VI— M, Ad III. Sc. II. 

Falstaff. And I hear moreover, his highness is fallen into this same whoreson 

apoplexy. 
Ch. Just. Well, heaven mend him! I pray let me speak with you. 
Falstaf. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an 't to please your 

lordship ; a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whoreson tingling. 

Ch. Just. What tell you me of it ? Be it as it is. 

Fnhtaf. It hath its original from much grief; from study and perturbation 

of the brain. 

Henry IV— 2(1, Ad I., Sc. IL 

War. Be patient, princes; you do know, these fits 
Are with his highness very ordinary. 
Stand from him, give him air ; he'll .straight be well. 

Clar. No, no ; he can not long hold out these pangs : 
The inces.sant care and labour of his mind 
Hath wrought the mure, that should confine it in. 
So thin, that life looks through, and will break out. 

P. Humph. This apoplexy will certain be his end. 

Henry IV— 2d, Ad IV., Sc. IV. 

.18 



PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 

Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy ; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible. 

Coriolamis, Act IV., Se. V. 

Dick. Why dost thou quiver, man ? 
Say. The palsy and not fear provokes me. 
Cade. Nay, he nods at us, as who should say, 
I'll be even with you. 

Henry VI— 'id, Act IV., Sc. VII. 

With a palsy -fumbling on his gorget. 
Shake in and out the rivet. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act I., Sc. III. 

How quickly should this arm of mine. 
Now prisoner 1o the palsy, chastise thee. 

Ricliard II, Act II., Sc. III. 

Flat on the ground and still as any stone, 
A very corpse, save yielding forth a breath. 

SacL-riUe. 

How concisely he describes epilepsy, giving the mo.'«t promi- 
nent symptoms. 

Ca.ica. He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, and was 

speechless. 
Bi-u. 'Tis very like, — he has the falling sickness. 
Co.'ica. ***** When he came to himself again, he said, If he had 

done or said anything amiss, he desired their worships to think 

it was his infirmity. 

Julius Ciesar, Act I., Sc. II. 

Julius Cffisar was the only epileptic among his characters: 
Othello is spoken of as being one, but this is merely lago's lie to 
Cassio, which is clearl}" shown in Othello's conversation after the 
trance, it being a continuation of the former subject, which is 
never the case in epilepsy. 

Ingo. My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy : 

This is his second fit ; he had one yesterday. 
Cas. Rub him about the temples. 
lago. No, forbear ; 

The lethargy must have his quiet course ; 

If not, he foams at mouth, and by and by 

Breaks out to savage madness. 

Act IV., Sc. I. 

A plague upon your epileptic visage ! 

King Lear, Act. II., Sc. II. 

19 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

He takes some notice of the other affections classed under 
nervous diseases. 

Which of your hips has the most profound sciatica? 

Measure for Measure, Ad /., Se. II. 

Thou cold sciatica, 
Cripple our Senators, that their limbs may halt 
As lamely as their manners ! 

Timon of Athens, Ad IV., Sc. I. 

Loid, how my head aches ! what a head have I ! 
It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces 

Romeo and Jul id, Ad II., Se. V. 
When your head did but ache 
I knit my handkerchief about your brows. 

Kinf/ .lohn, Aet I]'., Sc. I. 

0th. I have a pain upon my forehead here. 

Des. Why, that's with watching; 't will away again. 

Othello, Ad III., Se. II. 
Let our finger ache, and it indues 
Our other healthful members even to a sense 
Of pain 

OiJiello, Ad III., Se. IV. 

Leander, he would have lived many a fair year, though Hero had turned 
nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for good youth he went 
but forth to wash him in the Hellespont, and being taken with the cramp, 

was drowned. 

As You Like It, Ad IV., Sc. I 

The aged man that cotfers-up his gold 

Is plagu'd with cramps, and gouts and painful fits 

Lucrece. 

* * * Shorten up their sinews 
With aged cramps. 

Tempest, Ad IV., Se. I. 

To-night thou shalt have cramps. 

Side stitches that shall pen thy breath up. 

Tempest, Aet I., Sc. II. 

I'll rack thee with old cramps. 
Fill all thy bones with aches. 

Tempest, Ad I., Se. II. 

Thy nerves are in their infancy again 
And have no vigour in them. 

Tempest, Ad /., ,SV'. II. 

20 



T'HAf'TTCE OF MKDICINE. 

Hysteria, in Shakespeare's time, was considered a disease 
common to both sexes, and was known as ^'Hysterica pastsio," or 
more popularly termed " the mother." 

O, how this mother swells up toward my heart! 
Hysterica pdssio — dowu, thou climbing sorrow, 
Thy element 's below! Where is this daughter? 

Kinff Lear, Act IL, Sc. IV. 

Percy thinks that Shakespeare read of this disease in Ilars- 
net's "Declaration of Popish Impostures'" while he was lookini;; 
up material for his character of Tom of Bedlam. The following 
is taken from (p. 25) the work referred to: "Ma: Maynie had 
a spice of the Hysterica passio as seems from his youth, hee him- 
self termes it the Moofher, and saith that hee was much troubled 
with it in Fraunce, and that it was one of the causes that mooved 
him to leave his holy order whereinto he was initiated and to 
returne into England.' 

Diseases of the nervous system have not been overlooked by 
other writers. How excellently we have described the chief 
symptom of locomotor ataxia : 

Obliquely wadrtlinfjto the mark in view. 

Pope. 

And Byron well portrays vertigo. 

Her eheek turn'd ashes, ears run,a:, brain whirl'd round, 

As it" she had received a sudden IjIow, 

And the hearts dew of pain sprang last and dully 

O'er her fair front, like morning's on a lily. 

Although she was not of the fainting sort, 

Baba thought she would faint, but there he err'd — 

It was but a convulsion, whieh, though short. 

Can never be described ; we all have heard, 

And some of us have felt thus " all amort," 

When tilings tieyond the common have occurr'd. 

J>ii)i. .finiii, ('until VI.. rer.<r Cr. 
That old vertigo in his head 
Will never leave him, till he's dead. 

Swijt. 

Of all mad creatures, if the learned are right. 
It is the slaver kills and not the bite. 

P0l)C. 

Loss ! — such a palaver, 
I'd inoculate sooner my wife with the slaver 
Of a dog when gone rabid, than li.sten two hotu-s 
* * * * * * 

Pi/fon— The Blue.^. 

21 



MEDICAL TlIOrOIITS OF (SHAKESPEARE. 

The sot, 
Hatli jjot ))lue devils for his morniii};' mirrors : 
AAhat tliough on Lethe's stream he seem to float. 
He can not sink his tremors or his terrors : 
The ruby ghiss that shakes within liis hand, 
Leaves a sad sediment of Time's worst sand. 

Jii/ron — Doll Juan, ('(into AT.. \'frnf 71'. 

Takino- up diseases of the circulatory sj'stem next we find 
Shakespeare displaying considerable knowledge in regard to 
them. The extended impulse of the heart under intense excite- 
ment is nicely shown in the Rape of Lucrece. 

His hand, that yet remains upon her breast, — 
Rude ram, to batter such an ivory wall ! 
May feel her heart, — (poor citizen !) distress VI, 
Wounding itself to death, rise up and fall, 
Beating her bulk, that his hand shakes withal. 

Again. 

I fear'd thy fortune, and my joints did tremble. 

My boding heart pants, beats, and takes no rest. 
But, like an earthquake, shakes thee on my breast. 

Voiiis <inH Adonis: 

\ I have tremor cordis on me, — my heart dances. 

Winter's Tale, Art /., Sr. J I. 

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair. 
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs. 
Against the use of nature ? 

Macheth, Art /., ,Sr. J I J. 

Death from "broken heart," caused by excessive griei;, finds 
mention in several plays. 

Woe the while ! 
O, cut my lace ; lest my heart, cracking it, 
Break too ! 

Wititcr's Tale, Art III., Sr. J I. 

The grief that does not speak, 
Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break. 

MarJieth, Art IV., Sr. III. 

Shall split thy very heart with sorrow. 

Ii'irhard III, Art I., Sr. HI. 



PRACTICK OF .MEDICINE. 

Dyer in his " Folk-Lore of Shakespeare " quotes the following'- 
from Mr. Timb's "Mysteries of Life, Death, and Futurit}'," 
(1801, p. 149.) " This alfection ( bi'oken-heart) was, it is believed, 
first described by Harvey; but since his day several cases have 
been observed. Morgagni has recorded a few examples: among 
them, that of George II., who died in 1700 ; and, what is very 
curious, he fell a victim to the same malady. Dr. EUiotson, in 
his Lumleyan Lectures on Diseases of the Heart, in 1839, stated 
that he had only seen one instance ; but in the ' CyclopaMlia of 
Practical Medicine' Dr. ToAvnsend gives a table of twenty-five 
cases, collected from various authors." 

A very good case of syncope is pi-esented in Pericles. " The 
cases of apparent death, in which it is believed that premature 
interment sometimes takes place, are of this kind. Instances 
have occurred in which the pulse, respiration and consciousness 
have been absent for several daj^s, and yet the patient has ulti- 
mately recovered. The sj'stem is in a sort of hybernation, in 
which vitality remains, though the vital functions are suspended. 
It is probable that, in such cases, a very careful auscultation 
might detect a slight sound in the heart." (Dr. George B. 
Wood's Practice. 1858. Vol. II., p. 211.) 

ISIake a fire within ; 
Fetch hither all my hoxes in my closet. 
Death may usnrp on nature many houis, 
And yet the fire of life kindle again 
The o'erpress'd spirits. I have heard 
Of an Ejryptian that liad nine hours lien dead, 
Who was hy good appliance recovered. 
"' ■"■ '"' ■"' ■•'■ the lire and cloths — 
The rough and woeful music that we have, 
Cause it to sound, 'beseech you. 
The viol once more -^ '■' * » 
" ■"■ ■"' I pray you, give her air; 
This queen will live; nature awakes; a warmth 
Breathes out of lier : She hath not been entrauc'd 
About live hours. See how she 'gins to Idow 
Into life's flower again ! 

Hush, my gentle neighbors! 
Lend me your hands ; to the next chamber bear her. 

23 



:\rEDTCAL TIlOrOHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

Get liuen ; uow this matter must be looked to, 
For her relapse is mortal. Come, come. 
And .Esculapius guide us I 

Act III., S<: II. 

Take thou this phial, beiDg tlieu iu bed, 

And this distilled liquor drink thou oil": 

AVhen, presently, through all thy veins shall run 

A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse 

Shall keep his native progress, but surcease. 

No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou liv'st: 

The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade 

To paly ashes ; thj' eyes' windows fall. 

Like death, when he shuts up the day of life ; 

Each part, depriv'd of supple government, 

Shall, stitf, and stark, aud cold, appear like death : 

And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death 

Thou shalt continue two and forty hours. 

And then awake as from a pleasant sleep. 

linmco and Juliet, Act 71'., Sc. I. 

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart. 

Making both it unable for itself, 

And dissposessing all my other parts 

Of necessary fitness? 

So play the Ibolish throngs with one that swoons; 

Come all to help him, aud so stop the air 

By which he should revive. 

Pleasure for Meamue, Act II., Sr. IV. 

Many will swoon wheu they do look on blood. 

A>< Y<m Like It, Act. IV., Sc. III. 

No damsel faints when rather clo.sely press'd, 
But more caressing seems vvtien most caress' d : 
Siii)erflu(uis liartshoni, and reviving salts, 
Both banish"d bv the sovereign cordial " waltz." 



Hnvim—rhr Waltz. 



J 



Some attention has been paid to chlorosis: 



Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage. 
You tallow-face ! 

Romeo and .Tidief, Act III , Sc. V. 

Pand. The pox upon her green sickness for me. 

Bawd. Faith, there's no way to be rid on 't, but by the way to the pox. 

Pericles, Act IV., Se. VI. 

24 



PRArTTCE (IF >IET)I('INE. 

There's never any of these demure boys come to any proof; for thin drink 
doth so overcool their blood, and making many fish-meals, that they fall into 
a kind of male green sickness ; they are generally fools and cowards. 

Henni IV— 2d, Avt IV., Sr. III. 

Lepidus, 
.Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is tronbled 
With the green sickness. 

Atitnnji and CJcnpnlro, Act III., Sc. II. 

Ben Jonson in writing of this disease has happily and properly 
recommended mai'riage as an important step toward recovery. 

Ill' would keep vdii * * * not alone without a luisl)iui(l. 

H\it with a sickness ; ay. and the green sickness, 

The maiden's malady ; which is a sickness,— 

\ kind of a disease, ***** 

XwiX like the fi.sh our mariners call iriiioni. 

I say re mora, 
For it will stay a ship that's under sail : 
.Uid stays are lonj; and tedious things to maids I 
And maids are young ships that wt)Uld ))e sailing 
When they be rigg'd. * *. * * * 
Tlie stay is dangerous. 
* ****** * * 
I can assure you from the doctor's moutli. 
She has a dropsy, and must change tlie air 
Before she can recover. 

(live her vent. 

If she do swell. A gimhlct mu.st Ix' had : 

It is a tympanites she is troubled with. 

There are three kinds : the first is anasarca. 

Under the flesh a tumor ; that's not hers. 

The second is ascites, or aquosus, 

.\ watery humour ; that is not hers neither ; 

Hut tympanites, which we call the drum, 

A wind-bombs in her belly, must Ije unbraced. 

And with a faucet or a peg, let out, 

And she'll do well : get her a husband. 

Mnfivetir Lath/, AH IT., Sc. I. 

My nose fell a-bleeding on Black-Monday last. 

3TercJi(nit of Venice, Act II., Sc. V. 

Diseases of the respiratory system were quite overlooked by 
Shakespeare. 

Consumption catch thee ! 

Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. III. 

25 



MEDTf'AL THOrtiHTS OK SHAKESPKARE. 

There's hell, there's darkness, there is the sulphurous pit, burning, scalding, 
stench, consumption ! 

Kind Lear, Act IV., Sc. VI. 

Thy food is such 
As has been belch 'd ou by infected lungs. 

Pcrirle.^ Arf TV., Sc VI. 

]5ut I'm relapsing into mi'tiiphysics, 
That labyrinth, whose chie is of the same 
Construction as your cures for hectic phthisics. 
Those brisrht moths flntterins' round a dying flame. 

Byron — Don ,Tuan, Canto XI J. , Verne IjXXII. 

Love is riotous, but mairiag-e should have quiet, 
And. being consumptive, live on a milk diet. 

Bjiron — Don Jiiaii. Canto XW, IV/w XI, I. 

For goodness, growing to a plurisy, 
Dies in his own too-much. 

Hamlet, Art IV., .SV-. VII 

A whoreson cold, sir ; a cough, sir; which I caught with ringing in the 
king's affairs, upon his coronation day. 

Henri/ IV—2i1, Act III, ,Se. II. 

'Tis dangerous to take a cold. 

Henri/ IV., Art II, Sr. III. 

The tailor cries, and falls into a cough. 

Miil.Hiimmer A'/V//(/'.s Dream, Act II., Se. I. 

Coug'lis will come when sighs <lepart. 

Jl!/n>,i— Don ./mill, OiiiM X.. Vrrxe VJII. 

Who, * * =■■ but would much rather 

Sigh like his son, than cougli like his grandfatluT? 

Byron — Don .hiaii, C<rnlo X.. \'erse 17. 

He has not forgotten the diseases affecting the digestive organs. 

An old superstition regarding toothache was that it was caused 
by a small worm, formed like an eel, which bored a hole into the 
tooth, and various methods were employed to remove it. Dyer 
notes the fact that John of Gatisden, one of the oldest medical 
authorities, attributed decay of the teeth to this cause. 

Don Pedro. Wliat ! sigh for the toothache ? 
Leon. Where is but a humour or a worm ? 

3Iuch Alio, Act III., ,S<: II. 

, He that sleeps feels not the toothache. 

Cymheline, Act V., Sc. IV. 

26 



PRACTKK OF MEDICINE. 

Beiug troubled with a raging tootli, 

I could not sleep. 

OiheUo, Ac-f III., Sr. ITT. 

There was never yet philosopher, 

That could endure the toothache patiently. 

3Iuch Ado, Act V., Sv. 1. 

She shall be buried with her face upwards; 
Yet this is no charm for the toothache. 

Jliich Ado, Ad III., S<: II. 

I'eiic. 1 have the toothache. 
I). Pedro. Draw it. 

Much Ado, Act III., Sc. II. 

Things sweet to ta.ste prove in digestion sour. 

Richard II., Ad /, Sc III. 

A surfeit of the sweetest things 

The deepest loathing to the stomach brings. 

MidsKiinner Xii/hfs Dream, Ad II., Sc. II. 

Like a sickness, did I loath this food: 
But, as in health, come to my natural taste, 
Now do I wish it, love it, long for it. ""' ""' 

Midmmuicr Xif/hfs Dream, Ad IV , Sc. I. 

She gallops night by night. '•' "■•' 

O'er ladies lips, who straight on kisses dream ; 
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues. 
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are. 

Boittco and Juliet, Act I, Sc. IV. 

Fat paunches have lean pates, and dainty bits 
Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits. 

Love^)< Labour'' >< Lost, Act I., Sc. I. 

Say, can you fast ? Your stomachs are too young ; 
And abstinence engenders maladies. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV., Sc. III. 

I'nquiet meals make ill digestions. 

Comedy of Errors, Act V., Sc. I. 

A. sick man's appetite, who desires most that 
Which would increase his evil. 

Coriolamis, Act I., Sc. I. 

Do not turn me about ; my stomach is not constant. 

Tempest, Act II., Sc. II. 

27 



JIKDTCAL TIIOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 



For. PVLT iuiil iuioii coim's indiircstioii. 

Jli/raii — 1)1)11 JiKiii. ( 'auto XL, \'(ixi'lll. 

When a roast and a ragout, 
And fish and soup, by some side-dislies l)ack'd. 
Can give us either pain or pleasure, who 
Would pique himself on intellerts, whose use 
Deijends so much upon the gastric juice? 

Bj/rmi — I>(iti Jiiiw, Carilo I'., Vcr^r A'.VA'//. 

He ate and he was well supplied ; and she 
Who watch'd him like a mother, would have fed 
Him past all bounds, because she smiled to see. 
Such ai)i)etite in one she had deem'd dead : 
But Zoe, being older than Haidee, 
Knew (by tradition, for she ne'er had read). 
That famish'd people must be slowly nursed, 
And fed l)y si)Oonfnls, else they always l^iust. 

lijivdii—lhrn Jiiav. Cmito II.. Vrrtr CLVIIL 

Why look you pale? 
Seasick, I think, coming from Muscovy. 

Jjiic'k L<thour''s Last, Act V., Sc. II. 

The shepherd's daughter "■■' ""■ " who begau to be much seasick. 

Winter's. Tfilc, Art V., S<: II. 

the imjiatient wind blew half a gale : 

High dash'd the spray, the bows dipp'd in the sea, 
And seasick i)assengers turn'd somewhat pale. 

iijii„ii—[>(iii .iiKui. oiiitox.. ivm r.xn: 

Xow we've reached her, lo I the captain, 
Gallant Kidd, commands the crew ; 
Passengers their berths are clapt in. 
Some to grumble, some to spew. 

****** H: 

" Helji !"— " a couplet?"—" no. a cu]! 

Of warm water." 

' ' What' s the matter ?' ' 

" Zotnids ! my liver 's coming u|i : 

] shall not survive the racket 

Of this brutal Li.sbon Packet." 

Jii/mii —Pori)i.ii. 

Love 's a capricious power ; I've known it hold 
Out through a fever caused by its own heat, 
But be much puzzled by a cough or cf)ld. 
And find a quinsy very hard to treat ; 
Against all noble maladies he 's bold. 
But vulgar illnesses don't like to meet, 
Nor that a sneeze should interrupt his sigh. 
Nor inflammations redden his lilind eye. 
But worst of all it's nausea, or a pain 
.\bout the lower regions of the bowels : 
Love who heroically breathes a vein, 
Shrinks from the application of hot towels. 

28 



PRAfiTIOE OF MEDICINE. 

And purfratives ;\vv dniisorons to liis rciijii. 
Seasickiu'ss dt'atli. 

Jlili<>ii—J>oii JiKiii. CitJilo II.. IVrxe -V.V//. 

Like wind coiiiiiri'.ss'd and ]>eiil within a liladdt'v. 
Or like a lunnan colic which is sadder. 

l!iir(iii—]'i,tioii Iff .Jtidijiiii'iil. 

Wlicn will your c()nstii>atii)n have done, .nood inadanic? 

Ciirdi-rinlit. 

Diseases of tlie secretory system have not escaped bis eao-le 
eye. 

A (at old man """ ••" -" that sAvoln parcel of dropsies. 

Jleiin/ JJ'., Art II., ,SV'. If. 

The dropsy drown this fool ! 

Tempest, Act IV., Sc. I. 

It is a dropsied honour. 

-l//'s Well, Act II., Sc. 111. 

Flit. You make liit rascals, mislress Doll. 

DoU. I make them ! gluttony and disease make them. 

Heni!) IV— 2d, Act II., Sc. IV. 
Leprosy was sometimes called measles, from the French of 
leper, meseau or mesel. This is the sense in which Shakespeare 
uses the word measles — an entirely ditterent one from that now 
in vogue. The word "hoar," occurring in several of the quota- 
tions, refers to the white spots so eharactei'istic of the disease. 

As (or my country I have shed my blood, 
Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs 
Coin words till their decay against tho.se measle.s. 
Which we disdain should tetter n.s, yet .sought 
The very way to catch them. 

Coriolfoms, Act IIL, Sc. I. 
CJold! - '" * - * - 
This yellow slave will make the hoar leprosy ador'd. 

Timoii of Af/icDfi, Act I]'., Sc. III. 

Hoar the flameu, 
That scolds against the quality of fle.sh. 
And not believes him.self 

Tiiiion of Atheii>i, Act IV., Sc. III. 
Itches, blaius, 
Sow all the Athenian bosoms, and their crop 
Be general leprosy ! 

Timon of Athens, Act IV., Sc. I. 

29 



.MEDICAL THOrOHTS OF SIIAKKSl'KAHK. 



Diseased nature oftimes breaks forth 

In strange eruptions. 

Hen 11/ IV., J (I in.,S<: I. 

For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire, 
The mere elit'nsion of thy ])roper loins, 
Do curse the gout, .s rpigo, and the rheum, 
For ending thee no sooner. 

Jfi'dsiirc for Measure, Ad III., S<\ I. 

Now the dry serpigo on the subject ! 

Troilits iiiiil C'ressiilo, Act II., Sc. III. 

A tailor might scratch her where 'er she did itch. 

Tempest, Act II., Sc II. 

Tn the midland counties of England a pimple was frequently 
called " a quat." 

I have rubb'd this young c^uat almost to a .sen.se, 
And he grows angry. 

OlhcUo. Act V.,Sc. I. 

Rubbing the poor itch, 

-::- •;:- -;;- Make yourselves scabs 

CoridhiniiH, Act I., Sc. I. 

I would thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee : 
I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. 

TroiluK and CrcKsida, Act II., Sc. I. 

My elbow itched ; I thought there would a scab follow. 

3Iuch Ado, Act III., Sc. III. 

Scratching her legs that one shall swear she bleeds. 

Taming of the Shrew, Ind., Sc. II. 

Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains. 

King John, Act HI., Sc. I. 

Dro. S. She sweats— a man may go over shoes in the grime of it. 
Ant. S. That's a fault that water will mend. 
Dro. S. No, sir, 'tis iu grain. 

Comedy of Errors, Act III., Sc. II. 

I had rather heat my liver with drinking. 

• Antony and C/eopafrd, Act I., Sc. II. 

Let my liver rather heat with wine, 

Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. 

Merchant of Venice, Act I., Sc. I. 

30 



PRACTICE OF MEDICINK. 



Were my wife's liver 

Infected as her life, she would not live 

The ruunin-i of one glass. 

W!iiier\'< Talr, Art I.. ,SV. //. 

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? 

Troilu^ and Vrcxsidu, Aft /., Sc III. 

All seems infected that the infected spy, 
And all seems yellow to the jiuuidiced eye. 



The liver is the lazaret of ))ilc, 

Hilt very rarely executes its function, 

For the tirst passion stays there such a w liilc 

That all the rest creep in and form a junction. 

Like knots of vipers on a dunghill's soil. 

Rage, fear, hate, jealousy, revenge, compiniction. 

So that all mischiefs spring up from this entrail. 

Like eartluiuakes from tlie hidden fire call'd " central." 

Bilfov—Ihiii Jintii, Canto III.. IVr.se CCXV. 

The examination of the urine as an aid to diagnosis has been 
resorted to for many centuries, but the processes of to-day are, of 
course, vastly different from and hardly to be compared with those 
of earlier times, when blind ignorance caused urine-examining, or 
•' water-casting," to be a mere mockery. The practice, says Dr. 
Bucknill, arose " like the barber surgery, from the ecclesiastical 
interdics upon the medical vocations of the clergy. Priests and 
monks, being unable to visit their former patients, are said tirst 
to have resorted to the expedient of divining the malady, and 
directing the treatment upon simple inspection of the urine." 
The College of Physicians, in an old statiite, denounced it as be- 
longing only to charlatans, and members were not allowed to give 
advice on inspection only. Shakespeare has frequently referred 
to it, as have also many others of the old writers, who condemn 
strono-ly what was then a shallow deception, but what has now 
Itecome, by the light of knowledge, one of the most important 
diagnostic aids to many diseases. 

7/o.s/. Thou art a Castilian, king urinal ! 

-::- Pardon, a word, monsieur, mock-water. 
J>r. Coiu^. Wock-vater ! vatisdat? 

3Iern/ IF(<;e.s, Art II., Sr. III. 

If thou conld'st, doctor, cast 
Tlie water of my land, tind her disease, 

31 



MEDICAL TIIOrGIITS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

And purge it to a sound and pristine health, 
I would applaud thee to the very echo. 

Blacheih, Act V., Sc. III. 

Carry his water to the wise woman. 

Twelffh Nif/ht, Act III., Sc. IV. 

Fahtaff. What says the doctor to my water? 

Page. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water; but, for the 
party that owed it, he might have more diseases than he knew for. 

Henry IV— M, Act /., .SV. //. 

Others, when the bagpipe sings i' the nose 
Cannot contain their urine: for affection, 
Master of passion, sways it to the mood 
Of what it likes or loathes. 

Slercliunt of Venice, Act IV., Sc. I. 

Macd. What three things does drink especially provoke ? 
Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. 

Macbeth, Act II., Sc II. 

When he makes water, his urine is congealed ice. 

Meaiiure for Measure, Act III., Sc. II. 

Fevers and other general diseases are often referred to and 
ver}^ many excellent allusions have been made to them. 

I He is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable 

to behold. 

Henry V., Act II., Sc I. 

If all the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his ague. 

Tempest, Act II., Sc. IT. 

A lunatic lean-witted fool. 
Presuming on an ague's privilege, 
Dar'st with thy frozen admonition 
Make pale our cheek ; chasing the royal blood. 
With fury, from his native residence 

Richard II., Act II., Sc I. 

But now will canker sorrow eat my bud, 
And chase the native beauty from his cheek, 
And he will look as hollow as a ghost, 
As dim and meagre as an ague's fit. 
And so he'll die. 

Kimi John, Act III, Sc IV. 

Here let them lie till famine and the ague eat them up. 

Macbeth, Act V, Sc V. 

32 



PRACTICE OP MKDICINK, 



An untimely ague 
Htay'd ine a prisoner in my chambor. 

Henry VIII., Art /., Sc. I 

My wind * '• * would Wow me to an ague. 

Mervhant of Venire, Act I., Sc I. 

He had a lever when he was in Spain, 

And, when the fit was on him, I did mark 

How he did shake ; 'tis true, this god did shake : 

His coward lips did from their colour fly ; 

And that same eye whose bend did awe the world 

Did lose his lustre : I did hear him groan : 

Ay, and that toDgue of his, that bade the Konians 

Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, 

,-1/fr.s .' it cried, Gire vie some (Iriiik, Tiiiniiis, 

As a sick girl. 

Julius desnr, Act /., -SV-. //. 

Home without boots, and in foul weather too ! 

How 'scapes he agues? 

Henrij IV., Ad III, Se. I 

Danger, like an ague, subtly taints 
Even then when we sit idly in the sun. 

Troihis and Cressidn, Act III., Sc III. 

All the infectious that the sun sucks up 

From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him 

By inch-meal a disease ! 

Tempest, Act II., Sc. II. 

It is not for your health thus to commit 
Your weak condition to the raw cold morning. 

Julius Ciesar, Act II., Sc. I. 

I asked the doctors after his disease — 

He died of the slow fever called the tertian, 

.\nd left his widow to her own aversion. 

Bijrtm — Don Jiiun, Ccudo I.. Veist XXXIV. 

His feeluigs had not those strange fits, like tertians 
Of common likings, which make some deplore 
What they should laugh at— the mere ague still 
( »f men's regards, the fever or the chill. 

Biinjii—Doii Jiiini. Cavlo XIII., Verse XVII. 

Plague Las been alluded to frequently, but generally only 
the symptoms of carbuncles and the petechise are mentioned. 
As the latter only occur in very bad cases, they were called 
" God's tokens," and their appearance denoted a fatal termina- 
ls 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OP SHAKESPEARE. 

tion of the disease. Hence the home of the patient was closed 
and " Lord have mercy on ns " placed upon the door. 

Write Lord have mercy on us on those three ; 

They are infected, in their hearts it lies; 

They have the phigue and caught it of your eyes. 

Lovers Labours Lout, Act V., S<: I J. 

He is so plaguy-proud, that the death tokens of it cry — 
No recovery. 

Troihis and Cremda, Act IL, Sc IJL 

Enoharlms. How appears the fight? 
Scaritx. On our side like the token'd pestilence, 
Where death is sure 

AntiDU) and Cleopatra, Act IIL, ,Sc. A'. 

Now the red pestilence strike all trades in IJonie, 

Antl occupations perish ! 

Coviolantis, Act IV., Sc. I. 

The searchers of the town, 
Suspecting that we both were in a house 
Where the infectious pestilence did reign, 
Healed up the doors and would not let us forth. 
/ I'oineo and Juliet, Act V., Sc. IL 

Thou art a boil, 
A plague sore, an embossed carbuncle, 

In mv corrupted blood. 

Kinf/ Lear, Act IL, Sc. IV. 

Boils and plagues 
Plaster you o'er ; that you may be abhorr'd 
Further than seen, and one infect another 
Against the wind a mile ! 

Coriola)nift, Act /., .SV'. /T. 

Men take diseases, one of another : 

Therefore, let men take heed of their company. 

Henri/ IV— 2d, Act V., Sc. L 
Being sick * "■•" * "•'" * '•■' 
And as the wretch, whose fever- weak en 'd joints. 
Like .strengthless hinges, buckle under life. 

Henri/ IV— 2d, Act L, Sc. I. 

We are all diseas'd ; and 

****** * * -;:- 

Have brought ourselves into a burning fever. 
And we must bleed for it. 

Henry IV— 2d, Act IV., Sc. I. 

34 



PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 

This fever, that hath troubled me so loug, 

Lies heavy on me. * * "•'' "" 

This tyrant fever burns me up, 

And will not let me welcome this good news. 

Kin;/ John, Act V., S<: J 1 1. 

What's a fever but a fit of madness ? 

Corned 1/ of Errors, Act V., Sc. J. 

At this instant he is sick, my lord. 
Of a strange fever. 

3IeasKre for dleasine, Act J'., S<-. I. 

My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse. 

Troitiis and Crcssida, Act III., Sc. II. 

Sickness is calchiug. 

Midmmmer NighVs Dream, Act /.. ,SV-. T. 

Tlius saith the preacher : " Noujflit l)eneath the sun, 
Is new," yet still from change to change we run : 
W hat varied wonders tempt us as they jjass ! 
The cow-i)ox, tractors, galvanism, and gas, 
In turns appear, to make the vulgar stare. 
Till the swoln bubble liursts— and all is air ! 

Jii/roii—Eiii/. Hard.'' mid Sfalrh Hi rifirrrn. 

Vaccination certainly has been 
.V kind antithesis to Congreve's rockets. 
With which the Doctor paid off an old pox. 
By bf)rrowing a new one from an ox. 

Bjinm — Don .Jiiiiii. Ciiiifii I., IV/sf CXXTX. 

I don't know how it was, but he grew sick : 

The empress w'as alarm'd, and her physician 

(The same who physick'd Peter), found the tick 

Of his tierce pulse betoken a condition 

Which augur'd of the dead, however ijiiick 

Itself, and show'd a feverish disposition ; 

At which the whole court was extremely troubled. 

The sovereign shock'd, and all his medicines doubled. 

Low were the whispers, manifold the rumoiu's : 

Some said he had been poison'd by Potemkin ; 

( )thers talked learnedly of certain tumours, 

Kxhaustion, or disorders of the same kin ; 

St)me said 'twas a concoction of the humours. 

With which the Ijlood too readily will claim kin : 

Others again were ready to maintain, 

" 'Twas only the fatigue of last campaign." 

But here is one prescription out of many : 

" Sodie-sulphat. 3. VI. 3. S. mannte optim. 

Aq. fervent. F. 3. iss. 3. ij tinct. sennse 

Haustus," (and here the surgeon came and cupp'd him), 

R. Pulv. com. gr iii. Ipecacuanha'," 

(With more besides, if .Tuan had not stopp'd 'em). 

85 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 



" Bolus potassie sulphuret. sumendns, 
Et haustus ter in die capiendus." 
This is the way physicians mend or end ns, 
Secundum artera. ***** 

Bunm—ihiii JiKiii. Cantd A'., IV)>v A'.YA'/A'. 

Kheuniiatic diseases do abound : 

Aud through this disteniperature, we see 

The seasons alter. 

Miihiimmcf NigJifs Drcatn, Act 11.^ Sr. I. 

This raw rheumatic day. 

Merry Wm:<:, Act III., So. I. 

Is Brutus sick, — aud is it physical 

To walk unbraced, and suck up humours 

Of the dank morning ? What, is Brutus sick, 

Aud will he steal out of his wholesome bed, 

To dare the vile contagion of the night, 

And tempt the rheuma aud unpurged air 

To add unto his sickness? 

Jxliits desar, Act II., Sc. I. 

Is this the poultice for my aching bones? 

Romeo and Juliet, Act II.. Se. V. 

.1 roininii .-ilioirrr your slidDtinj;' corns presjige, 
Old ac/i<j.'< irilt t/iroh. voiir hollow tooth will rage. 

Swijl. 

Yet am I better 
Than one that's sick o' the gout, since he had lather 
(iroan so in perpetuity, than be cur'd 
By the sure physician, death. 

Ci/mlieliiie, Act F., ».SV'. Il\ 

A rich man that hath not the gout. 

A.t You Like It, Act HI., Sc II. 

His grace was rather pained 
\\'ith some sliglit, liglit. hereditary twinges 
Of gout, which rusts aristcjcratie hinges. 

Bj/ron — Bon .III (III. Ctiiitu, AT/., Vecw A'A'AV 1'. 
It is a hard, altliough a common case. 
To find our eliildren running restive — they 
In whom our brightest days we would retrace, 
Our little selves refomi'd in finer clay : 
Just as old age is creeping on apace, 
And clouds come o"er the sunset of our day, 
They kindly leave us, though not (juite alone. 
But in good company — the gout and stone. 

fiiiroii — Dim.fiiaii, Caii/o III., Wr.fc LJX. 
Life's thin thread 's spvui out 
Between the gaping heir and gnawing gout. 

lljimii—Ddii .liiiui. Caiilii XIII., IVor A7„ 

36 



I'RACTK'E OP MEDICINE. 

Dear honest Nert is in the jrout. 
Lies racked with pain, and you witlidiit : 
How patiently you liear him jiroan I 
How glad tlie ease is not your own ! 

"^'et should some neighbor feel a pain 
Just in the parts where I complain, 
How many a message would lie send ! 
\\ hat hearty prayers that I should mend ! 
Inquire what regimen I kept?- 
AVhat gave me ease, and how I slept ? 
And more lament when I was dead, 
'I liiin all my snivellers round my bed. 

SiriJ't-" Dritth of Dr. Sniff " 

Diseases of the absorbent system are well represented by 
scrofula, or " King's evil," as it was known in Shakespeare's time. 
This disease, so called on account of the supposed power of cure 
being invested in the handling and prayers of the king, was first 
so treated by Edward the Confessor, in 1058, and by all the suc- 
ceeding rulers until William III., who refused. Queen Anne re- 
sumed the practice, but King George I, put an end to it. Dur- 
ing the twenty years following 1662 upwards of 100,000 persons 
were touched for the malady. 

3Ialcolin. Conies the king forth I piny 3011 ? 

Doctor. Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls 
That stay his cure; their malady convinces 
The great assay of art ; but, at his touch, 
Such sanctity halh heaven given his hand, 
They presently amend. 

Mnlcohn. I thank you, doctor. 

Blacdvff. What's the disease he means? 

3I(il(olm. 'Tis call'd the evil 

A most miraculous work in this good king : 
Which often, since my here-reinain in England, 
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, 
Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people, 
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, 
The mere despair of surgery, he cures ; 
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 
Pat on with holy prayers ; and 'tis spoken. 
To the succeeding royalty he leaves 
The healing benediction. 

3I(tcbeth, Act IV., Sc. III. 

On the action of medicines he has given us abundant cause to 

37 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OV SHAKESPEARE. 

think he was much better informed than the average man of his 
time. 

Cleo. Give me to drink mandragora 
Char. Why, niadanie ? 

Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of time, 
My Antony is away. 

Anlotiy foul Clcopaiia, Ad /., ,SV'. V. 

Not poppy, nor mandragora, 
Nor all the drowsy sjrups of the world. 
Shall ever med'cine thee to that sweet sleep 
Which thou ow'dst yesterday. 

OlhrUn, Aci III., Sr. III. 

Cupid's cup 
With the first draught iutoxicates apace — 
A quintessential laudanum or " black drop " 
Which makes one drunk at once, witliout tlie base 
E.xpedient of full bumpers. 

Bijron — Don ./iKiii. Cuiilo /A',. I >)•.««/> A" 17/. 

like an oi>iate which brings troubled rest, 

( )r none, 

Biliiiii — Thill .Fiian, Canto A'17., \'f'rxe X 

The drug he gave me, which, he .said, was precious 
And cordial to me, have I not found it 
Murderous to the sen-ses ? 

CyiiiheJine, AH IV., ,Sc. II. 

Have we eaten of the insane root, 
That takes the reason prisoner ? 

Jlacleth, Act I., Se. III. 

Commentators think that Shakespeare found the name of this 
root in Bateman's Commentary on Bartholeme de Propriet Re- 
rum : "Henbane (Hyoscyamus) is called //i^a^ia, mad, for the 
use thereof is perillous ; for if it be eate or drunke, it breedeth 
madnesse, or slow lykenesse of sleepe. Therefore this hearb is 
called commonly Mirilidium, for it taketh away wit and reason." 

Lib. A'VIf., Ch. 81. 
Thy uncle stole. 
With juice of cursed hehenon in a vial. 
And in the porches of mine ears did ])()nr 
The le]3erous distilment ; whose effect 
Holds such an enmity with blood of man. 
That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through 
The natural gates and alleys of the body ; 

38 



PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 

And with a sndden rigour, it doth posset 

And enrd, like sour droppings into milk, 

The thin and wholesome blood : so did it mine, 

And a most instant tetter bark'd abont, 

Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust. 

All my smooth body- 

Jfamlcf, Ad L, Sc. V. 

It would indeed be interesting- to know the source of Shakes- 
peare's knowledge on the ph3'siological action of this alkaloid of 
tobacco. Most true it is that he has selected an excellent drug 
for his purpose in taking up the crude oil — Nicotia nin (hebenon). 
Birds will fall dead as the}' approach it ; one drop is sufficient to 
kill a dog ; and man dies in from two to five minutes after tak- 
ing a poisonous dose: but the drug produces death by tha failure 
of respiration, not by its direct action on the blood. " In nicotia- 
poisoning the blood is, however, not percepiiibly affected. The 
amount of the alkaloid necessary to take life is exceedingly 
small, and although death by asphyxia causes the vital fluid to 
be everywhere dark, yet the microscope reveals only normal 
corpuscles. Moreover, Krocker has found that the dark blood 
rapidly assumes an arterial haie when shaken in the air, and that 
its spectrum is normal." (H. C. Wood's Toxicology, 1882, p. 370.) 
It is thought by many that Shakespeare did not intend "heb- 
enon " to mean the alkaloid of tobacco, and very plausible 
arguments have been brought forward to show that he meant' 
hebon or the juice of the yew. Dyer, in his chapter on plants, 
gives the following extract of a paper read by Rev. W. A. Har- 
rison before the New Shakespeare Society in 1882: " It has been 
suggested that the ]ioison intended by the Ghost in 'Hamlet,' 
([-V.), when he speaks of the 'juice of cursed hebenon,' is that 
of the yew, and is the same as Marlowe's 'juice of hebon.' (Jew 
of Malta, III-I V.) The yew is called hebon by Spenser and by 
other writei"s of Shakespeare's age ; and in its various forms of 
eben, eiben, hiben, etc., this tree is so named in no less than five 
different European languages. From medical authorities, both 
of ancient and modern times, it would seem that the juice of the 
yew is a rapidly fatal poison ; next, that the symptoms attend- 
ing upon yew-])oisoning correspond, in a veiy remarkable man- 
ner, with those which follow the bites of poisonous snakes; and. 

39 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

lastly, that no other poison but the yew produces the " lazar- 
like ulcerations on the body, ujiou which Shakespeare, in this 
passage, lays so much stress." From these arguments there 
seems to be every reason for believing that Shakespeare did 
mean the juice of the yew, and it is to be hoped that the con- 
tinual harping on this subject, as an evidence of his medical 
ignorance, will soon cease. 

Recovered again with aquavitte, or some other hot infusion. 

Winter's Tale, Act IV., Sc. III. 
I must needs wake you : * * * * 
Alas! mj' lady's dead ! "" * ""' * '•' 
" * * * * Some aquavitic, ho ! 

Romeo and Juliet, Act IV., Sc. V. 

The second property of your excellent sherris is — the warming of the blood ; 
which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, * * * but the 
sherris warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extreme. 

Henry IV— 2d, Act IV., Sc. III. 

The rapidity with which aconite, in poisonous doses, acts, is 
forcibly shown in the comparison of it with gunpowder. 

A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in, 
That the united vessel of their blood, 
Mingled with venom of suggestion, 
(As, force perforce, the age will pour it in,) 
Shall never leak, though it do work as strong 
As aconitum, or rash gunpowder. 

Henn, IV— 2d, Act IV., Sc. IV. 
Let me have 
A dram of poison; such soou-speeding gear 
As will disperse itself through all the veins, 
That the life-weary taker may fall dead ; 
And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath 
As violently, as hasty powder fir'd 
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act V., Sc. I. 

The curative properties of balm or balsam have been known 
and valued for ages past. 

But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm. 

Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me 

The knife that made it. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act I., Sc. I. 

40 



PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 

Is this tlie biilsam that tlie usniiug senate 
Poms into captain's wounds? Banishment I 

Timon of AiheiiK, Act III., Sc F. 

My pity hath been balm to heal their wounds. 

Jhnry VI.—^^iJ, Act IV , Sc. III. 

A solution of gold was supposed to possess great medical 
power ; even the actual contact of the pure metal, according to 
their belief, kept the wearer ever in good health. Dyer quotes 
from John Wight's translation of the " Secrets of Alexis," in 
which is given a receipt " to dissolve and reducte golde into a 
potable licour which conserveth the youth and healthe of a man, 
and will heale every disease that is thought incurable in the 
space of seven dales at the furthest." The term "grand liquor," 
as it appears in Shakespeare, refers to this solution. 

Coming to look on you, thinking 3011 dead, 
(.•Vnd dead almost, my liege, to think you were,) 
I sjjake unto ihe crown, as having sense, 
And thus upbraided it: 7'hc care on tlicc (hpcndiiif/, 
Ifafli fed upon the bodi/ of my father ; 
'Therefore, thou, best of gold, art worst of (/old : 
Other, less fine in. carat, is more precious, 
Prescrrintf life in med'cinc jyotalile. 

Henry IV— 2d, Act IV., Sc. IV. 

Plutus himself, 
That knows the tinct and multipljnng medicine, 
Hath not in nature's mystery more science 
Than I have in this ring. 

AlVs Well, Act v., Sc. III. 

Find this grand licjuor that hath gilded 'em. 

Tempest, Act V., Sc. I. 

We sicken to .shun sickness when we purge. 

Sonnet.'i, CXVIII. 

What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug. 
Would scour these English hence ? 

Macbeth, Act V., Sc. Ill 

Let's purge this choler without letting blood: 
This we prescribe, though no physician ; 

Our doctors .say, this is no mouth to l)leed. 

IiichardII.,AetI.,Sc. I. 

41 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

That gentle physic, given in time, had cur'd me ; 
But now I am past all " '• * 

Henry VIII. , Act IV., Sc. II. 

'Tis time to give 'em physic, their diseases 
Are grown so catching. 

Henry VIII., Act I.. Sc. III. 

He brings his physic 
After his patient's death. 

Henry VIII, Act III., Sc. II. 

I will not cast awaj^ my physic, hut on those that are sick. 

As You Like It, Act III , Sc. II. 

To jump a body with a dangerous physic 
That's sure of death without it. 

Coriohuuis, Act III., Sc. I. 

Doctors give physio bv wav of invvt'iitioii. 

Sirifl. 

The ignorant and superstitious were of the opinion that poi- 
sons could be prepared so that the eifeet could be produced at 
certain periods after their ingestion. They were also jn error 
in the thought that poisons caused great swelling of the body. 

She did confess she had 
For you a mortal mineral ; which, being took, 
Should by the minute feed ou life, and, lingering, 
By inches waste you. 

Cymbeline, Act V., Sc. V. 

All three of them are desperate : their great guilt, 
Like poison given to work a great time after. 
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. 

Tempe.^t, Act III, Sc. III. 

Hubert. The king, I fear, is poison'd by a monk : 
I left him almost speechless. * * * 

Bastard. How did he take it ? who did taste to him ? 

Hubert. A monk, I tell you ; a resolved villain. 

Whose bowels suddenly burst out : the king 
Yet speaks, and, peradventure, may recover. 

Kin;/ John, Act V., Sc. VI. 

You shall digest the venom of your spleen, 
Though it do split you ! 

Julius Csesar, Act IV., Sc. III. 

42 



PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 

If they had swallow'd poison 't would appear 
By external swelling : but she looks like sleep. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act V., Sc. II. 

K. John. There is so hot a summer in my bosom, 

That all my bowels crumble up to dust: 

I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen 

Upon a parchment; and against this fire 

Do I shrink up. 
F. Henry. How fares your majesty ? 
K. John. Poison'd, — ill fare; dead, forsook, cast off: 

And none of you will bid the winter come, 

To thrust his icy fingers in my maw ; 

Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course 

Through my burn'd bosom ; nor entreat the north 

To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips. 

And comfort me with cold : I do not ask you much, 

1 beg cold comfort ; and you are so strait. 

And so ingrateful, you deny me that * * * 

■\Vithin me is a hell ; and there the poison 

Is, as a fiend, confin'd to tyrannize 

On unreprievable condemned blood. 

Kiuff John, Art V., Sc. VII. 

Within the infant rind of this Aveak flower 

Poison hath residence, and medicine power : 

For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; 

Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act II., Sc. III. 

Like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards. 

Othello, Act II , Sc. I. 

I bought an unclion of a mountebank, 
So mortal, that but dip a knife in it. 
Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare 
Collected from all simples that have virtue 
Under the moon, can save the thing from death 
That is but scratch'd withal. 

Hamlet, Act IV., Sc. VII. 

A few miscellaneous quotations referring to medical subjects 
must here find a place. 

The more one sickens the worse at ease he is. 

.I.s You Like It, Act III., Sc. II. 

43 



MEDICAL THOUnilTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 



He fell sick suddenly, and jirew so ill 

He could not sit his mule. 

Hvnvn J' TIL, Act IV., Sc. II. 

the sun is ii most glorious sight. 

I've seen him rise full oft, iufleed of late 
I have set up on purpose all the night, 
Which hastens, as phyisicians say, one's fate : 
And so all ye, who -would be in the right 
In health and purse, begin your day to date 
From day-break, and when eoffin'd at fourscore, 
Engrave upon the plate you rose at four. 

Bi/rov — Don.Tiian, Canto II., Vcrix' CXL. 



So much was our love, 
We would not understand what was most tit ; 
But, like the owner of a foul disease, 
To keep it from divul^iiug, let it feed 
Even on the pith of life. 



Diseases desperate grown. 
By desperate appliance are reiiev'd 
Or not at all. 



Hiimhl, .id IV., He. I. 



Hamlet, AH IV., Sc. III. 



His di.ssolute disease will scarce obey this medicine. 

Merri/ Wives, Act III., Sc. III. 

O vanity of sickness! tierce extremes, 
In their continuance, will not feel themselves. 
Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts, 
Leaves them insensible. 

Kinf/ John, Act V., Sc. VII. 

What a catalogue have we here: 

Now the rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, ruptures, catarrhs, 
loads o' gravel i' the back, lethargies, cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, 
wheezing lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, lime-kilns i' the palm, 
incurable bone-ache, and the rivelled fee-simple of tetter, take and take again 
such preposterous discoveries ! 

Troiliis and Crcssida, Act V., Sc. I. 

As burning fevers, agues pale and faint. 
Life-poisoning pestilence, and frenzies wood, 
The marrow-eating sickne-ss, Avhose attaint 
Disorder breeds by heating of the blood : 
Surfeits, imposthumes, grief and damu'd despair. 
Swear nature's death for framing thee so fair. 

Vcnns and Adonis. 

44 



VRAOTICE OP MEDICINK. 

How nicely does be describe the decay of man, the second 
childhood, the wasting- aAvay of the organism : 

The sixth age shifts 
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, 
AViih spectacles on nose and pouch on side; 
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide 
J\jr his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice 
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes 
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all. 
That ends this strange eventful history. 
Is second childishness, and mere oblivion. 
Sans teelh, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. 

As YoH Like It, Art. IT., Sc. VII. 
Again : 

Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down 
old with all the characters of age ? Have you not a moist eye ? a dry hand ? 
a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increasing belly? Is 
not your voice broken ? your wind short? your chin double ? your wit single ? 
and every part of you blasted with antiquity : and will you yet call yourself 
young? 

Henry IV— 2d, Act I., Sv. II. 

The satirical rogue says here, that old men have grey beards; that their 
Aices are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum; 
and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. 

Hmnh't, Act II., Sc. II. 

A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn 
white; a curled pate will grow bald ; a fair face will wither; a full eye will 
wax hollow. * * * 

Renry V., Act V., Sc. II. 

Were I hard-favour'd, foul, or wrinkled-old, 
Ill-natur'd, crooked, churlish, harsh in voice. 
O'er worn, despised, rheumatic, and cold. 
Thick -sighted, barren, lean, and lacking juice. 
Then might thou pau.se. ■•" * * 

Venus and Adonis. 
Let them die, that age and sullens have ; 
* * * both become the grave. 

Richard II., Act II, So. I. 
Thus, methinks, I hear them speak. 
See, how the Dean begins to break ! 
Poor gentleman ! he droops apace ! 
You plainly find it in his face. 
That old vertigo in his head 

-±5 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

Will never leave him, till he's dead. 
Besides, his memory decays : 
He recollects not what he says ; 
He can not call his friends to mind ; 
Forgets tlie place where last he dined : 
Plies you with stories o'er and o'er : 
He told them fifty times before. 
How does he fancy we can sit 
To hear his out-of-fashion wit? 
But he takes up with younger folks, 
Wlio for his wine will bear his jokes. 
Faith, he must make liis stories shorter, 
Or change his comrades once a quarter. 

SwiJ'l—" Death of Dr. Sirifl." 

Thus Swift predicted his own end as early as 1731. History 
mournfully testifies that his candle bui-nt out as he anticipated. 
" Fits of lunacy were succeeded by the dementia of old age. For 
three years he uttered only a few words and broken interjections. 
He would often attempt to speak, but could not recollect words to 
express his meaning, upon which he would sigh heavily. Babylon 
in ruins (to use a simile of Addison's), was not a more melan- 
choly spectacle than this wreck of a mighty intellect ! In speech- 
less silence his spirit passed away Octolier 19, 1745." (Chamber's 
Eng. Lit.) 

Manhood declines — age palsies every limb ; 
He quits the scene — or else the scene quits him ; 
Scrapes wealth, o'er each departing penny grieves, 
And avarice seizes all ambition leaves ; 
Counts cent, per cent., and smiles or vainly frets, 
O'er hoards diminish'd by young Hopeful's debts : 
Weighs well and wisely what to sell or buy, 
Complete in all life's lessons— but to die ; 
Peevish and spiteful, doting, hard to please. 
Commending every time, save tiines like these : 
Crazed, querulous, forsaken, half forgot. 
Expires unwe])! — is Ijuried — let liim rot 1 

Byron — Hinf>! from Horarr. 

The signs of a probable fatal termination are most beautifidly 
portrayed by Shakespeare. The death of Falstatf can not fail 
to be regarded by the profession as an excellent description of 
approaching dissolution. 

'A made a finer end, and went away, an it had been any chiistoni cliild ; 
'a parted even just between twelve and one, even at the turnin*;- of the tide: 
for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flower.s, and smile 
upon his finger's ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as 
sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. * * * 'A bade nie lay 
more clothes on his feet : I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they 

40 



PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. 

were as cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and so upwards, and up- 
wards, and all was as cold as any stone. 

Henry V., Act II., Sc. III. 

Clarence. Lord ! Methought, what pain it was to drown ! 
What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears! 
What ugly sights of death within mine eyes ! 

* -:;- * * * * * * * 

Brakenhttri/. Had you such leisure in the time of death, 

To gaze upon these secrets of the deep? 
Clarence. Methought I had ; for still the envious flood 
Kept in my soul and would not let it forth 
To seek the empty, vast, and wand'ring air ; 
But smother'd it within ray panting hulk. 
Which almost burst to belch it in the sea. 

Richard III, Act I. Sc. IV. 
/ How oft when men are at the point of death, 

*^ Have they been merry ! which their keepers call 

A lightning before death. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act V., Sc. III. 

Out, alas ! she's cold ; 
Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff; 
(/ ' Life and these lips have long been separated : 

Death lies on her like an untimely frost 
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act IJ'., Sc. V. 
Do yon notice 
How much her grace is alter'd on the sudden ? 
How long her flice is drawn ? how pale she looks. 
And of an earthy cold ! Mark her eyes. 
* * * She is going. Henri/ Vin.,Act IV., Sc. 11 

Her physician tells me 
She hath pursu'd conclusions infinite 

Of easy ways to die. Antony and Cleopatra, Act V., Sc. II. 

j/ Bid a sick man in sadness make his will : — 

A word ill urg'd to one that is so ill. 

Romeo and Jnliet, Act 7. , Sc. I. 
By his gates of breath 
There lies a downy feather, which stirs not: 
Did he suspire, that light and weightless down 
Perforce must move. Henry IV — 2d, Act IV., Sc. IV. 

Lend me a looking-glass ; 
If that her breath will mist or stain ine stone, 
Why then she lives. Kine/ Lear, Act V., Sc. III. 

47 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 



Death, on a solemn night of state, 

In all his pomp of terror sate : 

The attendants of his gloomy reign, 

Diseases dire, a ghastly train ! 

C rowded the vast court. With hollow tone, 

A voice thus thundered from the throne : 

" This night our minister we name ; 

Let every servant speak his claim : 

Merit shall bear this ebon wand." 

All, at the word, stretched forth their hand. 

Fever, with burning heat possessed, 

Advanced, and for the wand addressed : 

" I to the weekly bills appeal : 

Let those express itiy fervant zeal ; 

On every slight occasion near, 

With violence I persevere " 

Next Gout appears with limping pace, 

Pleads how he shifts from place to place : 

From head to foot how swift he flics, 

And every joint and sinew plies ; 

Still working when he seems supprest, 

A most tenacious stubborn guest. 

A haggard spectre from the crew 

Crawls forth, and thus asserts his due : 

" 'Tis I who taint the sweetest joy. 

And in the shape of love destroy. 

My shanks, sunk eyes, and noseless ftice. 

Prove my pretension to the place." 

Stone urged his overgrowing force ; 

And, next consumption's meagre corse, 

With feeble voice that scarce was heard. 

Broke with short coughs, his suit preferred : 

" Let none object my lingering way ; 

I gain, like Fabius, by delay ; 

Fatigue and weaken every foe 

By long attack, secure, though slow." 

Plague represents his rapid power. 

Who thinned a nation in an hour. 

All spoke their claim and hoped the wand. 

Now expectation hushed the baud, 

When thus the monarch from the throne ; 

" Merit was ever modest known. 

What ! no physician speak his right ? 

None here ! but fees their toil requite. 

Let, then. Intemperance take the wand. 

Who tills with gold their zealous hand. 

You, F^ever, Gout, and all the rest — 

Whom wary men as foes detest— 

Forego yoiu- claim. No more pretend 

Intemperance is esteemed a friend ; 

He shares their mirth, their social joys, 

And as a courted guest destroys. 

The charge on him must justly fall. 

Who finds employment for you all " Gdij—" Court of Drath. 



48 



PART III. 

SURGERY. 

Shakespeare paid much more attention to the practice of 
medicine and obstetrics than to surgery. Perhaps the cause of 
this was that at that time surgery had not reached its present 
perfection. A more probable reason is that his son-in-law, Dr. 
John Hall, may not have been a surgeon. 

lago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant? 

rV/.s. Ay, past all surgery. 

OtheUo.Act II., Sr. III. 

Can honour set a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of 
a wound? No. Honour hath no .skill in surgery then? No. 

Henry IV., Ad V., Sr. I. 

With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover. 

3Ii(if<>imm€r N^i(/Jif.'< Dreaw, Act F.. Sc. I. 

Let me have surgeons; 
I am cut to the hrains. 

Kiiif/ Lear, Act IV., Se. VI. 

Tiie king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make when all those legs, 
and arms, and heads, chopped off in a hattle, shall join together at the latter 

day, and cry all We died at such a place ; some swearing, some crying for 

a surgeon, .some, upon their wives left poor behind them. 

Henry V., Act IV., Sc. I. 

Piitr. Who keeps the tent now ? 

Titer. The surgeon's box, or the patient's wound. 

Troilns and Crcs.'<idfi, Act T'., Sc. I. 



Give physic to the sick, ease to the pain'd : 

The poor, lame, blind, halt, creep, cry out for thee. 



Lucrece. 



What opposite diseoverie.s we have seen ! 

(Signs of true genius, and of empty pockets ;) 

One makes new noses, one a guillotine, 

One breaks your bones, one sets them in their sockets. 

Bi/ron — J><)ii .TiKui, ('unto I., \'ersr CXXIX. 

49 k 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OV SHAKESPEARE. 

The lawyer's l)rit'l' is like the surgeon's knife 
Dissecting the whole inside of a ((Uestion, 
And witli it all the process of digestion. 

Byriiii—Doii Jmui. Cuvln X., Vernf X]\'. 

All feel the ill, yet slmn the cure. 
Can sense this paradox endnre? 

Swift. 

Syphilis is frequently referred to, and lie represents several of 
his characters as having it; among them Falstaff and Dame 
Quickly. 

Li/simnchiis to keeper of o hawdij house: 

Have you that a man may deal withal and defy the surgeon? 

FeH(le.% Art IV., So. VI. ■ 

You help to make the diseases, Doll: 
We catch of you, Doll, we catch of you. 

Henry IV— 2d, Act II., Se. IV. 

Boult. Do you know the French kuight that cowers i' the hams? * * * 
Hated. As for him he brought his disease hither. 

Pericles, Act IV., Sc. IT. 

Doth fortune play the huswife with me now ? 
News have I, that my Nell is dead i' the spital 
Of malady of France. 

Henri/ V., Act I'., ,SV-. 7. 

In this sty, where, since I came, 
Disea.ses have been .sold dearer than physic. 

Pericle.% Act IV., Sc. VI. 

With tomboys, '•' * * with diseas'd ventures, 
That play with all infirmities for gold. 
Which rottenness can lend nature ! 

Such boil'd .stuff 
As well might poi.son poi.son! 

Ci/mheline, Act I., Sc. VI. 

I have purchased as many disea.ses under her roof as come to * * * ••" 
three thousand dollars a year. 

yiea>n(re for Measure, Act I, Sc. II. 

Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo 
The means of weakness and debility. 

As You Like It, Act II., Sc. III. 

If we two be one, and thou play false, 
I do digest the poison of thy flesh. 

Comedy of Errors, Act II., Sc. II. 

50 



srR({ERy 



Consumptions sow 
In hullaw hones of lueo ; strike their sharp shins. 
And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's roiee, 
That he nuiy never more false title plead, 
Nor sound his quillets shrilly: hoar the flamen, 
Thai scolds against the quality of flesh, 
And not believes himself: down wHh the nose, 
Down with it flat ; take the bridge quite awoi/, 
Of him that, his particular to foresee, 

Smelts from the f/enenil weal : make rurVd pate ruffians hald : 
And let the uuscarr'd braggarts of the war 
Derive some pain from yon. 

Timon of Athens, Art IV., Se. III. 

The symptoms of secondary and tertiary syphilis are accu- 
rately expressed in this curse of Timon's. Leprosy is referred 
to in the sentence " hoar the flamen," or in other words, make 
white the priest. Shakespeare here shows a ver3' fine point by 
using these most dreaded of all diseases : leprosy, syphilis, and 
consumption— maladies that are hereditary, incurable, and' con- 
tagious. They are certainly lasting,as he wishes the curse to be. 

A pox on 't ! 
A common expression scattered through many of his plays. 

A man can no more separate age and covetousness than he can part young 
limbs and lechery; but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other. 

Hen r 11 IV— 2d, Act /., Sc. II 
I'faith, if he be not rotten before he die (as we have many pocky corses 
now-a-days, that will scarce hold the laying in), he will last you some eight 
year or nine year. 

Hamlet, Art V., Se. I. 
She hath eaten up all her beef, and is herself in the tub. 

Measure for Measure, Act III, Se. II. 
To the spital go, 
And from the powdering-tub of infamy 
Fetch forth the lazar-kite of Cre.ssid's kind, 
Doll Tearsheet she by name. Henry V., Act II, Se. I. 

Be a whore still : -• ■• ^^ -- 
Give them diseases, * ""' * 
■A- -:;- * -;s- geason the slaves 

For tubs and baths; bring down rose-cheeked youth 
To the tub-fast, and the diet. 

Timon of Athens, Act IV., Se. III. 

51 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

Dr. Macdonnell, of Canada, has thrown much light on these 
quotations in his works on Syphilis. He says : " It appears to 
have been the custom to prescribe for syphilitic patients, in 
addition to inunction, a prolonged diaphoresis and a veiy low 
diet. On the continent the patient was placed in a cave, oven, 
or dungeon, and Wiseman says it was the custom in England to 
use a tub for this purpose." 

In the foot-note to the passage in Johnson & Steven's edition 
of Shakespeare's works the following quotations from old plays 
ai'e given : 

" you had better match a ruin'd bawd, 



One ten times cnr'd by sweating and the tub." 

Jaspar Mninra, Ifi:','.). 

Again, in the Family of Love., (1608), a doctor says : 

" O for one of the hoops of my Cornelius' tub, I shall burst myself with laushing- else." 

In Monsieur d' Olive, (1606) : 

" Onr embassage is into France, there m<ay be employment for thee : Hast thou a tub?" 

She, whom the spital- house, and ulcerous sores 
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices 
To the April day again. 

Timon nf Alhenfi, Act IV., So. I] I. 

'Tis I who taint the sweetest joy, 
And in the shape of love destroy. 
My shanks, sunk eyes, and noseless face. 
Prove my pretension to the place. 



Pox take him and his wit. 



(iill/. 

Swifl. 



Constant to nought— save liazard and a whore, 
Yet cursing both— for both have made him sore : 
Unread— unless, since books beguile disease, 
The pox becomes his passage to degrees. 

lijinm — Hints from Jlnrdcr. 

I said small-])ox had gone out of late ; 

Perha]>s it will lie followed liy the great. 

'Tis said the great came from America : 

Perhaps it may set out on its return, — 

The population there so spreads, they say, 

'Tis grown high time to thin it in its turn. 

With war, or plague, or famine, any way. 

So that civilization they may learn ; 

And ^\■hich in ravage the more loathsome evil is— 

Their real lues, or our pseudo-syphilis? 

Bi/mii—D(iv Juan, Canto I., Vrrsc CXXX. 

He'll feci the weight of it many a day. 

Cmiieij. 

52 



SURGERY. 



A little attention if< paid to diseases of the eye. thus in Winter's 

Tale : 

Wishing all eyes 
Blind with the pin and web, bnt theirs, theirs only, 

That would unseen be wicked. 

Act L, Sc. II. 

Commentators have the thought that Shakespeare wished to 
express the idea of cataract by the term pin and web— this is, 
without doubt, a mistake ; he did not intend to make lovers so 
cruel that they should desire to deprive every one else of sight. 
Pin and web (being a varicose excrescence of the conjunctiva, 
sometimes to such an extent as to totally prevent vision), was 
meant to express a veil, or in other words, the eyelid. 
Must you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes? 

O heaven ! that there were but a mote in yours, 

A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair. 

Any annoyance in that precious sense! 

Then, feeling what small things are boist'rous there, 

Your vile intent must needs seem horrible. 

Kh)g John, Ad IV., <SV'. /. 

The term "sand-blind" was meant to express a dimness of 
sight, as if sand had been thrown in the eyes. 

Lnuncelof. O heavens, this is my true-begotten father! who, being more than 

sand-blind, high-gravel blind, knows me not. 

* ***** * -"- * 
Cohhn. Alack, sir, I am sand-blind, I know you not. 

Merchant of ]'cnicc, Act II., Sc. II. 

I remember thine eyes well enough 

Dost thou squiny at me ? 

King Lcnr, Ad. IV.. Sc. T /. 

He gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip. 

King Lear, Act III., Sc. IV. 

Thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye. 

TroiJuH and Cret^:<ida, Ad V., Sc. I. 

\ mcrrv, rnrk-eved. curious looking svn'itc 

Bi/rnii — Vixiov oj .JiiiUjmf^ii. 

To no one muse does slit- her glanct' confine, 

But has an eye, at once, to all the nine. Tom Moore. 

The subject of wounds has received frequent mention. 

53 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OP SHAKESPEARE. 

A scratch, a scratch ; marry, 'tis enough ; * * * go, villain, fetch a sur- 
geon. * * * 'Tis not deep as a well, nor as wide as a church door; but 
'tis enough, * * * ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave 
man. 

Borneo and Juliet, Act III., Sc. J. 

Have by some surgeon * * * 

To stop his wounds lest he do bleed to death. 

Merchant of Venice, Act IV., Sc. I. 

For the love of God, a surgeon ! send one presently to Sir Toby. * * * 
H'as broke my head across, and has given Sir Toby a bloody coxcomb too : 
for the love of God your help ! 

Twelfth Night, Act V., Sc. I. 

Borneo. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that. 
Benvolio. For what, I pray thee ? 
// Borneo. For thy broken shin. 

Borneo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. II. 

Moth. A wonder, master ; here's a Costard broken in a shin. 

Armado. Some enigma, some riddle: come, — thy V envoy ; begin. 

Costard. No egma, no riddle, no I' envoy ; no salve in the male, sir; O 
sir, plantain, a plain plantain; * * * no salve, sir, but a 
plantain! Lovers Labour'' s Lout, Act III., Sc. I. 

The sovereign'st thing on earth 
Was parmaceti, for an inward bruise. 

Henry IV., Act I., Sc. IIL 

I do beseech your majesty, may salve 

The long-grown wounds of my intemperance. 

Henry IV., Act IIL. Sc. II. 

Let us hence, my sovereign, to provide 
A salve for any sore that may betide. 

Henry VI— M, Act. IV., Sc. VL 
Here is a letter, lady ; 
The paper as the body of my friend. 
And every word in it a gaping wound. 
Issuing life-blood. Merchant of Venice, Act III, Sc. II. 

/ He jests at scars, that never felt a wound. 

Borneo and Juliet, Act II., Sc. 11. 

Dercetas. This is his sword ; 

I robb'd his wound of it. * * * 
Csesar. * * * We do lance 

Diseases in our bodies. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act V., Sc. I. 



SURGERY. 

Men. Where is he wounded ? 

Vol. V the shoulder and i' the left arm : 

There will be large cicatrices to show the people. 

Coriolanus, Act II., So. I. 
What wound did ever heal but by degrees ? 

Othello, Act II., Sc. Ill 

To see the salve doth make the wound ache more. 

Litcrece. 

Scratch thee bnt with a pin, and there remains 
Some scar of it. 

As You Like It, Act III, Sc. V. 

The new-heal'd wound * * * should break out, 
Which would be so much the more dangerous. 

Richard III, Act II.. Sc II. 

I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good master cobweb. If I cut my 
finger, I shall make bold with you. 

Midsummer Nighfs Dream, Act III, Sc. I. 

I'll fetch some flax, and whites of eggs 
To apply to 's bleeding face. 

Kinff Lear, Act III, Sc. VIL 

Go, get a white of an egg and a little tiax, and close the breach of the head ; it is the 
most conducible thing that can be. 

Ben Jovson-" The Case is Altered." Act II., Sc. IV, 

One's hip he slash'd, and split the other's shoulder, 
And drove them with their brutal yells to seek 
If there might be chirurgeons who could solder 
The wounds they richly merited. 

Byron— Dnn .Juan, Canto VIII., Verse XCIV. 

Many surgical subjects receive but little attention from him. 

Ber. What is it, my good lord, the king languishes of? 
Laf. A fistula, my lord. 

AlVs Wen, Act L, Sc. I. 

Fal. Why, sirs, I am almost out at heels. 
Pist. Why, then, let kibes ensue. 

3Ierry Wives, Act L, Sc. III. 

The age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near the 
heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe. 

Hamlet, Act F., Sc. I 
If it were a kibe 
'Twould put me to my slipper. 

Tempest, Act II, Sc. L 

I- 

55 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OP SHAKESPEARE. 

If a man's brains were in 's heels, were 't not in danger of kibes ? 

King Lear, Ad /., Sc. V. 

Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of the city ? 

Pleasure for Sleastire, Act II., Sc. I. 

Thou hast drawn my shoulder out of .joint. 

Hcnru IV— 2d, Act V., Sc. IV. 

Were 't my fitness 
To let Ihese hands obey my blood, 
They are apt enough to dislocate and tear 
Thy flesh and bones : — howe'er thou art a fiend, 
A woman's shape doth shield thee. 

King Lear, Aci IV., Sc. 11. 

Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of his ribs, * * * * 
there is little hope of life in him. 

As You Like It, Act I., Sc. II. 

It is the first time that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies. 

As You Like It, Act I., Sc. II. 

On her left breast 
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops 
I' the bottom of a cowslip. 

Ci/nihelinc, Act II., Sc. II. 

Under her breast 
(Worthy Ihe pressing) lies a mole, right proud 
Of that most delicate lodging. 

Cymbeline, Act II., Sc. IV. 

If thou wert * * * * 
Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious, 
Patch'd with foul moles and eye offending marks, 
I would not care. * * * 

King John, Act IIL, Sc. L 

In case of a recent burn it was the custom to place the part 
near the fire, thus upholding the old homoeopathic doctrine that 
what hurts will cure. 

And falsehood falsehood cures ; as fire cools fire 
Within the scorched veins of one new biarn'd. 

King John, Act III., Sc. I. 

One fire drives out one fire ; one nail, one nail ; 
Rights by rights founder, strength by strengths do fiiil. 

Coriolanus, Act IV., Sc. VII. 

5a 



sy 



SURGERY. 

Oue fire burns out another's burning, 
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish. 

Eomeo and Juliet, Act I., Se. II. 

Even as oue heat another heat expels, 

Or as one nail by strength drives out another, 

So the remembrance of my former love 

Is by a newer object quite forgotten. 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II., Sc IV. 

I must not break my back to heal his finger. 

Timon of Athens, Act II., Sc. I. 

That bottled spider, that foul, bunch-back'd toad. 

Richard III., Act IV., Sc. IV. 

Where's that valiant crook-back prodigy ? 

Henry VI— 3d, Act I., Sc. IV. 

Ladies, that have their toes 

Unplagu'd with corns, will have a bout with you. * * 
ly * * * Which of you all 

Will now deny to dance ? she that makes dainty. 
She, I'll .swear, hath corns. 

Eomeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. V. 

Strangely-visited people. 
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye. 
The mere despair of surgery. 

Macbeth, Act IV., Sc. III. 

Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more 
Than when it bites but lanceth not the sore. 

Richard II., Act I., Sc. III. 

You rub the sore. 
When you should bring the plaster. 

Tempest, Act II., Sc. I. 

It will but skin and film the ulcerous place. 

Hamlet, Act III., Sc. IV. 

Men. The service of the foot 

Being once gangren'd is not then respected 

For what before it was. 
Brii. Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence. 

Lest his infection, being of catching nature, 

Spread further. 

Coriolanus, Act III., Sc. I. 

57 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OP SHAKESPEARE. 

Sic. He's a disease that must be cut away. 
Men. O he's a limb that has but a disease; 
Moral, to cut it off; to cure it easy. 

Coriolanus, Act III., Sc. I. 

Falstaff. Boy, tell him I am deaf. 

Page. You must speak louder, my master is deaf. 

* * * % -X- -X- * * 

Falstaff. * * * it is a kiud of deafness. 

Ch.Just. I think you are fallen into the disease; for you hear not what I 

say to you, * * * and I care not if I do become your physician. 
Falstaff. * * * I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, 

the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or, indeed, a scruple 

itself. 

Henry IV— 2d, Act I, Sc. II. 

The surgery described in Titus Androiiicus is, of course, im- 
possible. 

With gapiup: mouth. 

SpevMT. 

Madame scolded one day so long, 

She sudden lost all u.se of tongue. 

The doctor came — with hem and haw, 

Pronounced the affection a lock'd jaw. 

Let firm, well-hammered soles protect thy feet 
Through freezing snows, and rains, and soaking .sleet. 
Should the big last extend the shoe too wide, 
Each stone will wrench the unwary step aside ; 
Tlie sudden turn may stretch the swelling vein, 
The cracking joint unhinge, or ankle sprain ; 
And when too short the modish shoes are worn. 
You'll judge the seasons by your shooting corn 

G(ui. 

Leeches stick, nor quit the bleeding wound. 
Till off they drop with skinfuls to the ground. 

^wifl. 

Think of the thunderer's falling down below 

C'arotid-artery-cutting C^astlereagh ! 

Alas ! that glory should be chill'd by snow ! 

Byron — Don .Tunn, Canto X , VcrKe LIX. 

The surgeon had his instruments and bled 
Pedrillo, and so gently ebb'd his breath, 
You hardly could perceive when he was dead. 

And first a little crucifix he kissed, 
And then held out his jugular and wrist. 

Bi/ron — Don Jiiaii. Cnvto IT., ^'crue I,XX^'J. 



58 



PART IV. 

OBSTETRICS. 

Obstetrics was Shakespeare's favorite branch of the profession, 
and he has not been at all sparing in reference to it. Under this 
head will be included many topics which could more properly be 
placed in the chapter on physiology, but it is thought better to 
have such intimate subjects classed together. They have been 
arranged in the order of their natui'al occurrence. 

Capulet. My child is yet a stranger in the world, 

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; 
Let two more summers wither in their pride, 
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. 

Park. Younger than she are happy mothers made. 

Capulet And too soon marr'd are those so early made. 

Romeo and Juliet.^ Act J., Se. II. 

Well, think of marriage now ; younger than you, 

Here in Verona, ladies of esteem. 

Are made already mothers: by my count, 

I was your mother much upon these years 

That you are now a maid. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act I., ,Sc. III. 

In the old poem Juliet's age is put dovvn as sixteen ; in Payn- 
ter's novel she is said to be eighteen. Shakespeare, however, 
makes her fourteen, but who ever imagines her of these tender 
years while enjoying the play? It seems absurd to think of her 
as being less than twenty or twenty-two until we recollect that 
she grew and developed into early womanhood under the sun of 
an Italian clime. The wonderful development of the girls of 
Italy can easily be seen in the Eternal city. Taking a stroll 
down to the Spanish staircase which is daily filled with Roman 
models lazily awaiting the engagements of the artists, or a walk 
on the Corso, or around the Theatre of Marcellus, convinces one 
at once that Shakespeare's Juliet, young as she is, is not over- 

59 



MEDICAL THOUGHT^! OF SHAKESPEARE. 

drawn, and that the Italian girl of fourteen is indeed fully 
"ripe to be a bride." 

'Tis a sad thing, I can not choose but say. 

And all the fault of that Indecent sun 

Who can not leave alone our helpless (;lay. 

But will keep baking:, broiling, burning on. 

That, howsoever people fast and pray, 

The flesh is frail and so the soul's undone ; 

What men call gallantry, and gods adultery, 

Is much more common where the climate's sultry. 

liyron — Don Juan, Canto I., Verse LXIII. 

Shakespeare has hinted several times that it was a common 
occurrence for girls of this " sun-burnt nation " to be mothers 
at the age of fourteen. Paris assures Juliet's father that "younger 
than she are happy mothers made," and Lady Capulet, in her 
conversation with her daughter, alludes to the fact that she was 
her mother when she was but thirteen. She also echoes Paris 

in saying : 

Younger than yoia 
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, 
Are made already mothers. 

Another reference is found in Winter's Tale : 

If this prove true, they'll pay for it: by mine honour, 

I'll geld 'em all ; fourteen they shall not see. 

To bring false generations. Act II., Sc. I. 

Perhaps Byron had a better idea of this climatic effect than 
any other poet. He has frequently written of it ; indeed, it 
forms the foundation of some of his poems. 

Wedded she was some years, and to a man 
Of fifty and such husbands are in plenty ; 
And yet, I think, instead of such a owe, 
'Twere better to have two of five and twenty. 
Especially in countries near the sun. 

liyron— Don Juan, Canto I., Verse LXII. 

It was upon a day, a summer's day ; 
Summer 's indeed a very dangerous season. 
And so is spring about the end of May ; 
The sun, no doubt, is the prevailing reason. 

Byron — Don Juan, Canto I., Verse CII. 

Haidee was nature's bride, and knew not this ; 
Haidee was passion's child, born where the sun 
Showers triple light, and scorches even the kiss 
Of his gazelle-eyed daughters. 

Byron— Dmi Juan, Canto II., Verse CCII. 

GO 



OBSTETRICS. 



The Tixrks do well to shut— at least sometimes— 
The women up- because, in sad reality, 
Their chastity in these unhappy climes 
Is not a thing of that astringent quality, 
Which in the north prevents precocious crimes. 

Byron— Don Ji«m , Canto V., Vrrne CLVII. 

Few short years make wondrous alterations, 
Particularly among sun-hurnt nations. 

Byruv — Don Juav, Coiito I., ]'erse LXIX. 

Our English maids are long to woo. 
And frigid even in possession : 
And if their charms be fair to view, 
Their lips are slow at love's confession : 
But born beneath a brighter sun. 
For love ordain'd the Spanish maid is 
And who when fondly, tairly won, — 
Enchants you like the girl of Cadiz? 

In each her charms the heart must move 
Of all who venture to behold her ; 
Then let not maids less fair reprove 
Because her bosom is not colder : 
Through many a clime 'tis mine to roam 
Where many a soft and melting maid is, 
But none abroad and few at home 
May match the dark-eyed girl of Cadiz. 

Byron —Poems. 

What a beautiful comparison Shakespeare has made between 
the virgin and flowers. 

I would I had some flowers o' the spring, that might 

Become your time of day ; and yours, and yours, 

That wear upon your virgin branches yet 

Your maidenheads growing * * * 

* * * * pgjg primroses, 

That die unmarried, ere they can behold 

Bright PlifL'bus in his strength, — a malady 

Most incident to maids. 

Winter's Tale, Act IV., Sc. III. 

Fair Hermia, question your desires. 
Know of your youth, examine well your blood, 
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice, 
You can endure the livery of a nun ; 
For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd 
To live a barren sister all your life. 
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. 
Thrice blessed they that master so their blood. 
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage ; 

61 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OP SHAKESPEARE. 

But earthly happier is the rose distill'd, 

Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn. 

Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness. 

Midsummer Nighfs Dream, Act I., Sc. I. 

Fecundation is not overlooked, and Shakespeare shows his 
knowledge of the fact that the penis is merely the spout or fun- 
nel by which the semen is conveyed to the uterus, and aptly 
compares the womb to a bottle, which in his time gradually 
tapered toward the neck. The word tundish is an old Warwick- 
shire name for a funnel. 

Duke. "Why should he die, sir? 

Lucio. Why ? For filling a bottle with a tun-dish. 

Measure for Measure, Act III., Sc. II. 

Thou shalt not die : die for adultery ! No: 
The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly 
Does lecher in my sight. 

Let copulation thrive for Gloster's bastard son 
Was kinder to his father than my daughters 
Got 'tween lawful sheets. 

King Lear, Act IV., Sc. VI. 

Hymen hath brought the bride to bed. 
Where, by the loss of maidenhead, 
A babe is moulded. 

Pericles, Gow to Act III. 

Crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at once, 
That make ungrateful man. 

King Lear, Act III., Sc. II. 

Q. Eliz. But thou didst kill my children. 

K. Rich. But in your daughter's womb I'll bury them ; 

Where, in that nest of spicery, they shall breed 

Selves of themselves, to your recoraforture. 

Eichard III, Act IV., Sc. IV. 

Your brother and his lover have embrac'd : 
As those that feed grow full ; a« blossoming time. 
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings 
To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb 
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry. 

Measure for Pleasure, Act I., Sc. IV. 

Hear, nature, hear ; dear goddess hear ! 
Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend 

62 



OBSTETRICS. 

To make this creature fruitful ! 

Into her womb convey sterility ! 

Dry up in her the organs of increase; 

And from her derogate body never spring 

A babe to honour her ! If she must teem, 

Create her child of spleen ; that it may live, 

And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her ! 

Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth ; 

With cadeut tears fret channels in her cheeks ; 

Turn all her mother's pains and benefits 

To laughter and contempt: that she may feel 

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is 

To have a thankless child ! . . r cv rr- 

King Lear, Act I., he. J I . 

The production of either sex at will agitated the minds of 
physiologists to a considerable extent during Shakespeare's time. 
Indeed h'e seems to have held an ancient theory that the more 
vigorous of the parents produced the opposite sex. Dr. Robert, 
of Paris, in his paper entitled Megalanthropogenesis, somewhat 
followed' up this theory and maintained that "the race of men 
of genius might be perpetuated by uniting them to better phy- 
sically developed women having clever minds," which, according 
to his theory, would, of course, result in nothing but male 
children. 

Bring forth men-children only ! 
For thy undaunted mettle should compose 

Nothing but males. „ , ,, ..re- r/ri- 

Macbelh, Act L, Sc. VII. 

For men's sake, the authors of these women; 
Or women's sake, by whom we men are men. 

Lovers Laboui''s Lost, Act IV., Se. III. 

Be advis'd, fair maid : 

To you your father should be as a god ; 

One that compos'd your beauties ; yea, and one 

To whom you are but as a form in wax, 

By him imprinted, and within his power 

To leave the figure, or disfigure it. 

Midsummer Nighfs Dream, Act I , Sc. I. 

The child would therefore resemble the parent of opposite sex. 

6.S 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

Nnme to Henry VIII: 

'Tis a girl * * * as like you 
As cherry is to cherry. 

Jd V.,Sc.I. 

Paulina pleading to Leontes on the birth of o dour/hter to his wife Hermione : 
Behold, my lords, 
Although the print be little, the whole matter 
And copy of the father, — eye, nose, lip; 
The trick of "s frown ; his forehead ; nay, the valley, 
The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek ; his smiles; 
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger. 

Winter's Tale, Ad II, Se. Ill 

It is a very old opinion that the mental state of parents dur- 
ing coition influenced to a certain extent the mental activity of 
the offspring. Bastards were supposed to excel in this respect 
on account of the mental excitement during the intercourse 
from which they took their origin. Burton held this view in his 
"Anatomy of Melancholy," and, after reading King Lear, we 
know that Shakespeare also held it. 

Edmund. Why brand they us 

"With base? with baseness? bastardy? base? base? 

"Who in the lusty stealth of nature take 

More composition and fierce quality 

Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed 

Go to the creating a whole tribe of fobs, 

Got 'tween sleep and wake. 



Ad. /., Se. II. 



His allusions to pregnancy are many. 



He knows himself my bed he hath defil'd ; 
And at that time he got his wife with child : 
Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick ; 
So there's my riddle, One that's dead i.s qniek. 

Airs Well, Ad v., Se. Ill 

She is gone ; she is two month on her way. * * 
She 's quick ; the child brags in her belly already. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Aet J\, Se. II. 

A mistake of ten weeks is truly a bad one ; quickening gen- 
erally being experienced four and a half months after impregna- 
tion.. 

64 



OBSTETRICS. 

I am with child, "' * * 

Murder not, theu, the fruit withiu my womh. 

Henvii VI., Act V., Sc. IV. 

She died, but not alone ; she held withiu 

A second principle of life, which might 

Have dawn'd a fair and sinless child of sin : 

But closed its little being without light, 

And went down to the grave unborn, wherein 

lUossom and bough lie witherM with one blight. 

Bi/run—Don Juan, Cniito IV., \ rrar LAA. 

This bine ey'd hag was hither brought with child. 

Tempest, Act I., Sr. II. 

ir myself might be his judge, 

Pie should receive his puuishmeut iu thanks: 

He hath got his friend with child. 

Measure for Pleasure, Act /, .SV. IV. 

I shall answer that "- * * better than you can the getting up of the 

nc'-To's belly ; the moor is with child ^ t^ • i4TTT ^. r 

ne^ro .>. .jcn.y , Merchnnt of Venice, Act III, Sc. f . 

I would there were no age between ten, and three and twenty, or that 
youth would sleep out the rest ; for there is nothing in the between but get- 
ino- wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting. - ^ 

Winter's Tale, Act III., Sc III 

He was whipped for getting the shrieve's fool with child; a dumb inno- 
cent that could not say him nay. ^^^,^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^.^ ^^, ^^^ 

Let wives with child 
Pray that their burthens may not fall this day. 

King John, Act III, Sc. I. 

Shakespeare knew of the importance of pregnant women, 
being particularly careful that nothing should excite them. 

I the rather wean me from despair, 

For love of Edward's offspring in my womb : 

This is it that makes me bridle passion, 

And bear with mildness my misfortune's cross; 

Ay, ay, for this I draw in many a tear. 

And stop the rising of blood-sucking sighs, 

Lest with my sighs or tears I blast or drown 

Kin*^ Edward's fruit, true heir to the English crown. 

Henry VI— M, Act IV., Sc. IV. 

05 



i / 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

The longings or desires of pregnant women are very nicely 
shown in Measure for Measure : 

She came in great with chikl, and longing for stewed prunes. 

Act II., Sc. I. 

This mistress Elbow, being as I say, with child, and being great bellied, 
and longing, as I said, for prunes. * * * 

Measure for Measure, Act II., Sc. I. 

From whom my absence was not six months old. 
Before herself (almost at fainting under 
The pleasing punishment that women bear) 
Had made provision for her following me. 

Comedy of Errors, Act I., Sc. I. 

The queen rounds apace. * * * 
* * * She is spread of late 
Into a goodly bulk. 

Winter's Tale, Act II, Se. I. 

The queen, your mother, rounds apace : we shall 
Present our services to a fine new prince 
One of these days. 

Winter's Tale, Act II., Sc. I. 

She grew round-wombed, and had a son for her cradle ere she had a hus- 
band for her bed. 

King lear, Act I., Sc. I. 

Great-bellied women, 
That had not half a week to go, like rams 
In the old time of war, would shake the press 
And make 'em reel before 'em. 

Renrij VIII., Act IV., Sc. I. 

Parturition is referred to in many instances. 

Lucina, O 
Divinest patroness, and midwife gentle 
To those that cry by night,, convey thy deity 
Aboard our dancing boat ; make swift the pangs 
Of my queen's travails ! 

Pericles, Act III, Sc. L 

What shall be done with groaning Juliet? 
She's very near her hour. 

Measure for Measure, Act II., Se. II. 

66 



OBSTETRICS. 

Come, let us go, and pray to all the gods 
For our beloved mother in her pains. 

I'itm Andronicus, Act /F., 8c. 11. 
The lady shrieks, aud well-a-near 
Doth fall in travail with her fear. 

Pericles, Gow to Act III. 

\ She is deliver'd, lords,— she is deliver'd. 

' I mean, she is brought a-bed. 

I Tituti Andronicits, Act IV., Sc. II. 

[ The queen's in labour, 

; They say, in great extremity ; and fear'd 

She'll wilh the labour end. 

Henry VIII., Act V., Sc. I. 

The queen's in labour. * * * Her sufferance made 



Almost each pang a death. 



Henry VIII , Act V., Sc. I. 



Finger of birth-strangled babe 

Difch-deliver'd by a drab. * * * i 

Machcth, Act IV., Sc. I. 
You ne'er oppressed me with a mother's groan. 
Yet I express to you a mother's care. 

AlVs Well, Act I, Sc. I 

History records the fact that the Duke of Gloucester, after- 
wards Richard III,, was born with teeth, uneven shoulders, one 
^ leg shorter than the other, deformed back, with a clump of hair 

on it. These facts Shakespeare never forgot, and continually 
harps on them. 

Thy mother felt more than a motlier's pain. 

And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope; 

To wit, an indigest deformed lump. 

Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree. 

Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wast born, 

To signify, thou cam'st to bite the world. 

Henry VISd., Act V, Sc. VL 

I have often heard my mother say 
I came into the world with my legs forward : 
Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste. 
And seek their ruin Ihat usurp'd our right? 
The midwife wonder'd and the women cried, 
O, Jems Idess vs, he is horn icitli teeth ! 

67 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

And SO I was, which plainly signified 

That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog. 

Henry VI— M., Act V., Sc. VI. 

Love forswore me in ray mother's womb : 
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws. 
She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe 
To shrink miue arm up like a wither'd shrub ; 
To make an envious mountain on my back. 
Where sits deformity to mock my body ; 
To shape my legs of an unequal size ; 
To disproportion me in every part. 
Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp 
That carries no impression like the dam. 

Henry VI— M, Act III, .Sc. II. 

The term " unlick'd bear-whelp," in the last quotation, refers 
to an old notion existing before Shakespeare's time : that the 
bear brings forth masses of animated flesh, having no resem- 
blance whatever to her, and that she then licks this shapeless 
lump into a cub. There is a thread of truth running through 
this idea, as will be seen by the following extract taken b}" Dyer 
from "Arcana Microcosmi," by Alexander Ross : " Bears bring- 
forth their j^oung deformed and misshapen, by reason of the 
thick membrane in which they are wrapped, that is covered over 
with a mucous matter. This, he says, the dam contracts in the 
winter-time, by l3'ing in hollow caves without motion, so that to 
the eye the cub appears like an unformed lump. The above 
mucilage is afterwards licked away by the dam, and the mem- 
brane broken, whereby that which before seemed to be unformed 
appears now in its right shape." lioss holds that this was well 
known by the ancients and that the}'' entertained no other idea 
in regard to it. 

Hence, heap of wrath, foul indigested lump. 
As crooked in tliy manners as thy shape ! 

Henry V 1-2(1, Act V, Sc. I 

I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion. 
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, 
Deform'd, untinish'd, sent before my time 
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, 
And that so lamely and unfashionable, 

68 



OBSTETRICS. 



That dogs bark at me as I halt by them ; 
Why I. * * * since I cannot prove a lover, 
I am determined to prove a villain. 

Eichnrd III., Act I., Sc. I. 

Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast 

That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old ; 

'Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth. 

Bichard III., Act II., Sc. IV. 

Thou elvish-mark 'd, abortive, rootiug hog ! 
Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity 
The slave of nature and the son of hell ! 
Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb! 
Thou loathed issue of Ihy father's loins! 

Richard III., Act I., Sc. III. 

Art thou so hasty ? I have stay'd for thee, 

God knows, in anguish, pain and agony. 

* ■■■ * A grievous burden was thy birth to me. 

Eichard III., Act IV., Sc. IV. 

From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept 
A hell-hound that doth hunt us all to death : 
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes. 

Bichard III., Act IV., Sc. IV. 

A few other quotations referring to labor are here found. 

By her he had two children at one birth. 

Henry VI— 2d, Act IV., Sc. II. 

A terrible child-bed hast ihou had, my dear; 

No light, uo fire. 

Pericles, Act III., Sc. I. 

At sea, in child-bed died she, but brought forth 

A maid-child called Marina. 

Pericles, Act V., Sc. III. 

The child-bed privilege denied, which 'longs 

To women of all fashion ;— lastly, hurried 

Here to this place, i' the open air, before 

I have got strength of limit. 

Winter's Tale, Act III., Sc. II. 

Alas ! worlds fall— and woman since she fell'd 
The world (as, since that history, less polite 
Than true, hath been a creed so strictly held ) 
Has not yet given up the practice quite. 
Poor thinfr of usages ! coerced, compell'd, 

69 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 



Victim wlien wrong, and martyr oft when right, 

Condemn'd to child-bed, as men for their sins. 

Have shaving too entail' d upon their chins,— 

A daily plague, which, in the aggregate, 

May average on the whole with parturition. 

But as to women who can penetrate 

The real sufferings of their she condition ? 

Man's very sympathy with their estate 

Has much of selfishness and more suspicion. 

Their love, their virtue, beauty, education. 

But form good housekeepers to breed a nation. 

Bi/ron — Don Juan , Can to XIV.. Verxe XXIIT. 

They are as children but one step below, 
Even of your mettle, of your very blood ; 
Of all one pain, save for a nijjht of groans 
Endnr'd of her, for whom you bid like sorrow. 

Rklinrd III., Ad IV., Si: IV. 

Would I had died a maid. 
And never seen thee, never borne thee sou. 
Seeing thou hast prov'd so unnatural a lather ! 
Hath he deserv'd to lose his birthright thus? 
Hadst thou but lov'd him half so well as I, 
Or felt that pain which I did for him once. 
Or nourish'd him, as I did with my blood. 

Henrii VI— ^d, Ad /., Sc. I. 

He is your brother, lords; sensibly fed 
Of that self-blood that first gave life to you ; 
And from that womb where you imprison'd were. 
He is enfranchised and come to light. 

TiUifi Andronicus, Ad IV., Sc. II. 

The child was prisoner to the womb, and is 

By law and process of great Natiire, thence 

Freed and enfranchi.-^'d. 

Winfrr'.'i Tale, Ad II., Sc. II. 

She said, no shepherd sought her side, 
No hunter's hand her snood untied. 
Yet ne'er again to braid her hair 
Tlie virgin snood did Alice wear : 
(rone was her maiden glee and sport, 
Her maiden girdle all too short, 
Nor sought she, from that fatal night. 
Or holy church or blessed rite, 
But lock'd her secret in her breast, 
And died in travail unconfess'd. 

Scott— UuJii of the Lake. Canio ITf., Ver.te V. 



OBSTETRICS. 



iMy princely father then had wars in France; 
^\ih1 by true computation of the time, 
B\)un(l that the issue \\ as not his begot. 

Rklmrd III., Art III., Sc. V. 

Worse than a slavish wipe, or birth hour's blot: 
Fdir marks descried in mens nativity 
Ari; nature's faults, not their own infamy. 

Lncrece. 

A few quotations on abortion, and some others that are inti- 
mately related to obstetrics, remain. 

If ever he have child, abortive be it, 
Proditjioiis, and untimely brought to light, 
Whose ugly and unnatural aspect 
May frigiit the hopeful mother at the view. 

/i'ir/uinl III, Art /., ,SV-. //. 

Why shdulfl I joy in any abortive birth ? 

Lovc'^i Lahoiuls Lost, Act /., .SV-. /. 

Truth is truth : large length of seas and shores 
Between my father and my mother lay, — 
And I have heard my father speak * * * 
That this, my mother's son, was none of his ; 
And, if he were, lie came info the world 
Full fourteen weeks before the cour.se of time. 

King John, Act I., Sc. I. 

Shakespeare has interwoven some of his family history here, 
and made the advent of Philip, the Bastard, correspond exactly 
to the untimely birth of his eldest daughter Susanna, who ap- 
peared only five and a half months after his marriage — " full 
fourteen weeks before the course of time." Later on in the play 
we find the following: 

Your brother is legitimate. 
Your father's wife did after wedlock bear him. 

— thus furnishing proof of legitimacy in such cases. 

She is, something before her time, deliver'd. 
* "" * A daughter ; and a goodly babe. 
Lusty, and like to live. 

Wivicr's Tale, Act II., Sc. II. 

O pray God, the fruit of her womb mi.scarry. 

Hciirij IV— 2d, Act. V., Sc IV. 

71 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

She had also snatch'd a moment since her marriage 
To bear a son and heir— and one miscarriage. 

Bijfoii — Don Juan, Canto XIV.. Vrri<c lA'I. 

Macduff was from liis mother's womb 
Untimely ripp'd. 

MarheUi, AH V., ,SV VI JI. 

Some grief's are med'cinal)le ; that is, one of" them, 
For it doth physic love. 

Cipnbeline, AH III.\ Sc. JI. 

This bastard graff shall never come to growth : 
He shall not boast who did thy stock pollute 
That thou art doting father of his fruit. 

Lverece. 

Grant, that our hopes, (yet likely of fair birth) 
Should be still-born. '"' ■" '" * 

Henry IV— 2,1, Act /., He. III. 

The barren, touched in this holy chase. 
Shake off thfir sterile curse. 

Jiiliu.s Cspmr, Art I., Sc. II. 

This supposed charnV against sterility, saj^s Dyer, " is copied 
from Plutarch, who, in his description of the festival Lupercalia, 
tells us how 'noble young men run naked through the city, 
striking in sport whom the}^ meet in the way with leather thongs,' 
which blows Avere commonly believed to have the wonderful 
effect attributed to them by Csesar." 

I had then laid wormwood to my dug, 

* * * it did taste the wormwood on the nipple 

Of my dug, and felt it bitter. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act /., Sc. III. 

I have given suck, and know 
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me; 
I would, while it was smiling in my face, 
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, 
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn 
As you have done to this. Macbeth, Art I., Sr. VII. 

Eggs, oysters too, are amatory food. 

Byron — DonJ\ian, Canto, IT., TVcsc CLXX. 

Surely Byron knew of the stimulating qualities of eggs and 
oysters, and no doubt took them with as much faith as the worn- 
out debauchee of to-day does, as he sits down to his " plate of 
raw" and his "sherry and egg." 



y 



PART V. 

PHYSIOLOGY. 

Mr. Hackett, noticino; the numerous allusions in Shakespeare 
to the blood, and to a circulation of this fluid to and from the 
heart or the liver, M^as led, in 1859, to express the absurd idea 
that William Shakespeare had anticipated Harvey in the dis- 
covery of the circulation of the blood. 

" What damned error, but some sober brow 
Will bless it, and approve it with a text." 

Mr. Hackett found many thouf^hts in Shakespeare concerning 
the circulation which were applicable to Harvey's theory. 

See, how the blood is settled in his face I 
Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost, 
Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale and bloodless, 
Being all descended to the labouring heart ; 
Who, in the conflict that it holds with death, 
Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy; 
Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth 
To blush and beautify the cheek again. 

Henry VI~2d., Act III., Sc. II. 
You are ""' * * - 
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops 
That visit my sad heart. 

Julius desar, Act II., Se. I. 

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, 
Making both it unable for itself. 
And dispo.ssessing all my other parts 
Of necessary fitness '? 

Measure for Measure, Act II., 8c. IV. 

My heart drops blood. 

Cymbeline, Act V., Sc V. 

I am sure my heart wept blood. 

Winter's Tale, Act V., Sc. II. 

73 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OP SHAKESPEARE. 

These words of yours draw life-blood from my heart. 

Henry VI., Act IV., Sc. VI. 

The blood weeps from my heart. 

Henry IV— 2d, Act IV., Sc. IV. 

I send it through the rivers of your blood, 

Even to the court, the heart — to the seat o' the brain ; 

And, through the cranks and offices of man. 

The strongest nerves and small inferior veins. 

From me receive that natural competency 

Whereby they live. 

Coriolnniis, Act I, Sc. I. 

The tide of blood in me 
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity, till now ; 
Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the sea, 
Where it shall mingle with the state of flood.s, 
And flow henceforth in formal majesty. 

Henry IV~2d, Act V, Sc. IL 

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 
Is stopp'd ; the very source of it is stopped. 

Macheth, Act II., Sc. II. 

my heart, * * * 

The fountain from the which my current runs, 

Or else dries up. 

Othello, Act IV., Sc. IL 

I cannot rest 
Until the white rose that I wear, be dy'd 
Even in the lukewarm blood of Henry's heart. 

Henry VI— 'M, Act I, Sc. II. 

Snakes, in my heart-V)lood warm'd, that .sting my heart ! 

Richard IL, Act III. Sc. II. 

Thy heart-blood I will have for this day's work. 

Henry VI., Act L, Sc. III. 

Thou wouldst have left thy dearest heart blood there, 
Kather than have made that savage duke thine heir. 

Henry VI — od, Act I, Sc. I. 

Her blue blood changed to black in every vein, 
Wanting the spring that those shrunk pipes had fed, 
Show'd life imprisou'd in a body dead. 

Lticrece. 

74 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



Corrupted blood some watery token shows; 
And blood untainted still doth red abide, 
Blushing at that which is so putrefied. 

Even here she sheathed in her harmless breast 
A harmful knife, ****** 
And bubbling from her breast, it doth divide 
In two slow rivers, that the crimson blood 
Circles her body in on every side, * * * 
Some of her blood still pure and red remain'd, 
And some look'd black. 



Luerece. 



Luerece. 



But are you flesh and blood ? 
Have you a working pulse? 

I drink the air before me, and return 
Or e'er your pulse twice beat. 



P.erkles, Act F., Sc. J. 



Tempest, Act F., Sc. I. 



My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time. 
And makes as healthful music. 

Hamlet, Act III., Sc. IV. 

Your pulsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart would desire. 

Henry IV— 2(1, Act II., Sc. IV. 

Even as my life, or blood that fosters it. 

Pericles, Act II., Sc. V. 

Swift as quicksilver it courses through 
The natural gates and alleys of the body. 

Hamlet, Act I., Sc. V. 

Shakespeare died in 1616. Harvey first published his theory 
in 1619. It must be remembered that at this time many ideas 
were afloat concerning the circulation. Among the older theories 
were those of Hippocrates, Praxagoras, and Erasistratus, who 
held that the arteries contained air, and that, therefore, the veins 
were the only blood-holding vessels, and that they had their 
origin in the liver Galen, the most celebrated of ancient medi- 
cal writers, who lived as early as 150 A. I), taught that the left 
ventricle of the heart was the common origin of all arteries, and 
that the arteries of living animals contained blood, not air; but 
he did not advance with his studies so as to learn in what direc- 
tion the blood flowed, or whether it was movable or stationary. 

75 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

The distinguished Michael Servetus, who was burned with his 
books, by order of Calvin, in 1553, taught that the blood flowed 
from the right ventricle, through the pulmonary arteiy to the 
lungs, and thence through the plumonary vein and left auricU^ 
into the corresponding ventricle from which it was conveyed by 
the aorta to all parts of the body. Dr. Bucknill is of the opinion 
that Shakespeare followed Hippocrates in his theory that the 
veins were the only blood vessels and that they came from the 
liver. It is very evident, from the many allusions given below, 
that he did at different periods adhere to this belief. 

Let my liver rather heat with wine, 

Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. 

Merchant of Venice, Act /., Sc. I. 

For Andrew, if he were opened, and you find so much blood in his liver a.s 
will clog the foot of a flea, I'll eat the rest of the anatomy. 

Twelfth Nic/Jif, Act TIL, Sc. IT. 

I'll empty all these veins, 

And shed my dear blood drop by drop. 

Henn/ IV., Act I., Sc. III. 

I'll have more lives 
Than drops of blood were in my father's veins. 

Henry VI— 'M, Act /., Sc. I 
Let me have 
A dram of poison ; such soon-speeding gear 
As will disperse itself through all the veins. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act V., Sc. I. 

I freely told you, all the wealth I had 
Ran in my veins 

Merchant of Venice, Act III., Sc. II. 

The blood and courage that renowned them, 
Runs in your veins.' 

Henry V, Act I., Sc. II. 

— through all thy veins shall run 
A cold and drowsy humour, which shall seize 
i/ Each vital spirit ; for no pulse shall keep 

His natural progress but surcease to beat. 

Borneo and Juliet, Act IV., Sc. I. 

There is * * '■'" * * 

Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins. 

Henry V., Act IV.. Se. II. 

76 



PHYSIOLOGY. * 

My blood speaks to you in my veins. 

3ferchaHt of Venice, Act III., 8c. II. 
While warm life plays in that infant's veins. 

King John, Act HI., Sc. IV. 

Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy thick, 
Which, else, runs tickling up and down the veins. 

Kinc/ John, Act III., Sc. Ill 

'Tis thy presence that exhales this blood 

From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells. 

Richard III., Act I., Sc. II. 

Stutf 'd within with bloody veins. 

Per iciest, Act /., ,SV'. IV. 

For every false drop in her bawdy veins 
A Grecian's life hath sunk. 

Troihis and Cresxida, Act IV., Sc. I. 

If .so thou yield him, there is gold, and here 
My bluest veins to kiss. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act II., Sc. V. 
That those veins 
Did verily bear blood. 

Winter's Tale, Act V., Sc. III. 

The veins unfiil'd, our blood is cold. 

CoriolanuH, Act V., Sc. I. 

I have a faint cold, fear thrills through my veins 
That almost freezes up the heat of life. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act IV., Sr. III. 

^ purple fountains issuing from your veins. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. I. 

The arteries or " air pipes" were supposed, according to this 
theory of Hippocrates, to contain an aerial fluid. 

These pipes and these conveyances of our blood. 

Coriolanus, Act V., Sc. I. 

Universal plodding poisons up 
The nimble spirits in the arteries. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV., Sc. III. 

My fate cries out, 
And makes each petty artery in this body 
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. 

Hamlet, Act I., Sc. IV. 



MEDICAL TIIOirOHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

It is more reasonable to suppose thttt Shakespeare did not tie 
himself down to any one theory concerning the circulation, but 
that sometimes he had in mind the theory of Michael Servetus, 
(to which all the heart allusions will apply), and at other times 
that of Hippocrates, (which accounts for all the thoughts regard- 
ing the liver as the propeller of the blood through the veins). 
The immortal Harvey was the iii'st to point out the true idea of 
the circulation : the idea that the blood was forced by the heart 
through the arteries, a pure live-supporting fluid ; that it went 
to the extreme parts of the body, giving nutriment, taking up 
impurities, and then returning by way of the veins to the heart, — 
thence to the lungs to be purified before being again sent out on 
it's life-sustaining journey. None of the quotations from Shakes- 
peare express this idea, excepting perhaps one, and that rather 
vaguely. 

The tide of blood in me 
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity, till now ; 
Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the sea, 
"Where it .shall niinsile with the state of floods, 
And flow henceforth in formal majesty. 

Henry IV— 2d, Act V., Sc. II. 

We can not believe, however that he possessed the knowledge 
of Harvey's theory, and cau only say in his own words : 

There is no vice so simple, but assumes 
Some mark of virtue on it's outward parts. 

The physiology of the digestive system is excellently described 
in Coriolanus. 

Men There was a time, when all the body's members 
Rebell'd against the belly ; thus accus'd it: 
That only like a gulf it did remain 
I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactivo, 
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing 
Like labovir with the rest, where the other instruments 
Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, 
And mntually participate, did minister 
Unto the appetite and affection common 
Of the whole body. The belly answer'd 
* * * * with a kind of smile. 
Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus, 

\ 

\78 



PHYSIOLOGY. 

For, look you, I may make the belly smile. 

As well as speak, — it tauntingly replied 

To the discontented members, the mutinous parts 

That envied his receipt. * * * 

1st at. Your belly's answer? What! 

The kingly-crown'd head, the vigilant eye, 
The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier. 
Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter. 
With other muniments and petty helps 
In this our fabric, if that they * * * 
Should, by the cormorant belly be restrain'd. 
Who is the sink o' the body. 



3Ien. 



True it is, quoth the belly. 

That I receive the general food at first, 

Which you do live upon ; and fit it is, 

Because I am the store house and the shop 

Of the whole body : but if you do remember, 

I send it through the rivers of your blood, 

Even to the court, the heart — to the seat o' the brain ; 

And, through the cranks and oflQces of man. 

The strongest nerves and small inferior veins. 

From me receive that natural competency 

Whereby they live. Act /., Sc. I. 

For your digestion's sake 
An after-dinner speech. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act II., Sc. III. 

To make our appetites more keen, 

With eager compounds we our palate urge. 

Sonnets, CXVIII. 

My cheese, my digestion. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act II., Sc. III. 

I say, whatever you maintain 
Of Alma in the heart or brain, 
The plainest man alive may tell ye 
Her seat of empire is the belly. 
From hence she sends out those supplies 
M'hieh make us either stout or wise ; 
Your stomach makes the fabric roll 
Just as the bias rules the bowl. 
The great Achilles might employ 
The strength designed to ruin Troy ; 
He dined on lion's marrow, spread 
On toast of ammunition bread ; 
But by his mother sent away 

79 



MEDICAL THOUOHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

Amongst the Thraeian girls to play, 

Effeminate he sat and quiet — 

Strange product of a cheese-cake diet ! 

Was ever Tartar fierce or cruel 

I'pon the strength of water-gruel ? 

Hut wlio shall stand his rage or force 

If first he rides, then eats his horse? 

Salads and eggs, and lighter fare. 

Tunes the Italian spark's guitar ; 

And, if I take Dan Congrieve right, 

Pudding and beef make Britons light. 

Tokay and coffee cause this work 

Between the German and the Turk : 

And both, as they provisions want, 

Chicane, avoid, retire, and faint. 

******* 

But, spoil the organ of digestion, 

.\.nd you entirely change the question : 

Alma's affairs no power can mend ; 

The jest, alas ! is at an end. * * * . ' I'vior. 

A few remaiBing physiological thoughts are interesting. As 
is well known, we are much better able to judge the size and 
distance of objects on the same level with us than we are when 
they are either above or below us. When we view objects from 
a height they appear much less than they would were we at the 
same distance from them on the same level. Shakespeai'e has 
beautifully shoAvn this effect in King Lear. 

How fearful 
And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eyes so low! 
The crows, and choughs, that wing the midway air, 
Show scarce so gross as beetles. Half way down 
Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! 
Methinks, he seems no bigger than his head : 
The fl.shermen that walk upon the beach, 
Appear like mice. * * * * Act IV., Sc. VI. 

The subject of pupillaiy reflexes has received mention by 
many of the older writers. It was a source of amusement to 
lovers in the old time to look into each others eyes in search of 
their own reflection. 

Joy had the like conception in our eyes, 
And, at that instant, like a babe, sprung up. 

Timon of Athens, Act I., Sc. II. 

Look in my eyes, my blushing fair, 
Thou'lt see thyself reflected there ; 
As I gaze on thine, I see 
Two little miniatures of me. 

80 



PHYSIOLOGY. 

Thus in our looks some propagation lies, 

For we make babies in each other's eyes. Tom Moore. 

When a young lady wrings you by the hand, thus, 
Or with an amorous touch presses your loot ; 
Looks babies in your eyes, plays with your locks. 

Mw^itiiKjev—Renffiado. Art IL, Sc, 71'. 

It has been a view long held that the height of the forehead 
is an index of the intellectual character of the individual. 
Shakespeare has referred to this in several plays. 
We shall lose our time, 
And all be turn'd to baruacles, or to apes, 

With foreheads villainous low. Tempest, Act IV., Sr. I. 

Ay, but her forehead's low, as mine's as high. 

Thvo Gentlemen of Verona, Aet IV., Se IV. 

Cleopatra. Bear'st thou her face in miud ? is't long or round? 
Messenger. Rouud, even to faultiuess. 
Cleopatra. For the most part too, 

They are foolish that are so. Her hair, what colour? 
Messenger. Browu, madame, and her forehead 
■ As low as you would wish it. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Ad III., Sc. III. 
The old superstition that much hair on the head indicated a 
want of intellect is alluded to in Two Gentlemen of Verona. 
Speed. Item, she hath more hair than wit. 

Laun. More hair than wit,— it maybe; I'll prove it: the cover of the salt 
hides the salt, and therefore it is more than the salt; the hair that 
covers the wit is more than the wit; for the greater hides the less. 

Aet III., Sc. I. 
Ant. S. Why is Time such a niggard of hair, being, as it is, so plentiful an 

excrement? 
Dro. S. Because it is a blessing that he bestows on beasts ; and what he hath 

scanted men iu hair he hath given them in wit. 
Ant. S. Why, but there's many a mau hath more hair than wit. 
Dro. S. Not a mau of those but he hath the wit to lose his hair. 
Ant. S. Why, thou did'st conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit. 

Comedy of Errors, Act II., Sc. II. 
This great voluminous pamphlet may be said 
To be like one that hath more hair than head ; 
More excrement than body : trees which sprout 
With broadest leaves have still the smallest fruit. SiickUn<i—Aglaura. 

He had some idea of the sympathetic connection between the 
organs of the body, and has furnished us with a good example 

81 



MEDICAL THOITOHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

of superstition connected with sympathy. It was an old super- 
stition that the wounds of a murdered person would bleed afresh 
if the body was touched by the murderer, and this has nicely 
been brought out in Richard III. 

O, gentlemen, see, see! dead Henry's wounds 

Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh ! 

Blnsh, blush, thou lump of foul deformity ; 

For 'lis thy presence that exhales this blood 

From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells, 

Tiiy deed, inhuman and unnatural, 

Provokes this deluge most unnatural. Act /., Sc. II. 

Dunglison explains these superstitions " either on purely phy- 
sical principles, or on the excited imagination of the observer," 
and cites two interesting cases — one attested by John Demarest, 
coroner of Bergen county, New Jersey, (17G7), and the other 
which occurred near Easton, Pennsylvania. Of the latter case 
he says : " The superstition has, indeed, its believers among us. 
On the trial of Getter, who was executed about five years ago 
(1833) in Pennsylvania, for the murder of his wife, a female wit- 
ness deposed on oath as follows : ' If my throat was to be cut, 
I could tell, before God Almighty, that the deceased smiled when 
he (the murderer) touched her. I swore this before the justices, 
and that she bled considerably. I was sent for to dress her and 
lay her out. He touched her twice. He made no hesitation 
about doing it. I also swore before the justice that it was 
observed by other people in the house.' " Dyer cites a number 
of similar cases, and quotes the following as u supposed cause of 
the phenomenon from the ''Athenian Oracle," (1-106) : " The 
blood is congealed in the body for two or three days, and then 
becomes liquid again, in its tendency to corruption. The air 
being heated by many persons coming about the body is the 
same thing to it as motion is. 'Tis observed that dead bodies 
will bleed in a concourse of people, when murderers arc absent 
as well as present, yet legislators have thought it fit to authorize 
it, and use this trial as an argument, at least to frighten, though 
'tis no conclusive one to condemn them." The practice, how- 
ever, caused many aii innocent spectator to receive the fatal 
penalty. 

82 



PART VI. 

ANATOMY. 

I 

Anatomy received some attention. 

Ants. What's her name? 

Dro. S. Nell, sir ; but her name aud three quarters, that's an ell and three- 
quarters, will not measure her from hip to hip. 

AnL S. Then she bears some breadth ? 

Dro. S No longer Irom head to foot than from hip to hip ; she is spherical 
like a globe, — I could find out countries on her. 

Ant. S. In what part of her body stands Ireland? 

Dro. S. Marry, sir, in her buttocks; I found it out by the bogs. 

Ant. S. Where's Scotland ? 

Dro. S. I found it by the barrenness ; hard, in the palm of the hand. 

Ant. S. Where's France? 

Dro. S. In her forehead ; arm'd and reverted, making war against her heir. 

Ant. S. Where's England? 

Dro. S. I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whiteness in them; 
but I gue^s it stood in her chin, by the salt rheum that ran between 
France and it. 

Ant. S. Where's Spain ? 

Dro. S. Faith, 1 saw it not ; but I felt it hot in her breath. 

Ant. S. Where's America, the Indies? 

Dro. S. O, sir, upon her nose, — -all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, 
saphires, declining their rich aspect to the hot breath of Spain, who 
sent whole armadoes of carracks to be ballast at her nose. 

Ant. S. Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands? 

Dro. S. O, sir, I did not look so low. * '■'• '■'• 

' Corned ij of Errors. Act III., Sc. II. 

Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale: 

Graze on my lips; and if those hills be dry. 

Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie. 

Within this limit is relief enough. 

Sweet bottom-grass, and high delightful plain, 

Round rising hillocks, brakes ob.scure and rough, 

To shelter thee from tempest and from rain : 

Then be my deer, since I am such a park; 

No dog shall rouse thee, though a thousand bark. 

Venus and Adonis. 
The old superstition that our bodies consisted ofthe elements — 
fire, water, earth and air — has been mentioned. 

83 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

Sir Toby. Does not our life consist of four elements? 

Sir Andrew. 'Faith so they say ; but I think it rather consists of eating and 
drinking. Twelfth Night, Aet II., Se. III. 

His life was gentle ; and the elements 

So mix'd in him, that nature might stand up, 

And say to all the world, T/t/.s wa» a man ! 

Jnlinfs Cwsar, Aet V., Se. ]'. 

I am fire and air ; my other elements 

I give to baser life. Antony ami (Heopafra, Aet F. , *SV. //. 

O tell me, friar, tell me, 
In what vile part of this anatomy 
Doth my name lodge ? Borneo and Juliet, Act III, Se. III. 

The brain was thought only to have three ventricles by the 
old anatomists ; what is now the fourth ventricle was called by 
them the third, and was supposed to be the seat of memory. 

A foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, 
apprehensions, motions, revolutions: these are begot in the ventricle of mem- 
ory, nourished in the womb of jna mater. 

Love'.s Labowr^s Lost, Aet IV., Se. II. 

— whose skull Jove cram with brains ! 
■;;- * * * jiag ^ most weak pin mater. 

Twelfth Night, Aet I., Se. V. 

Many a time, but for a sallet, ray brain-pan had beeu cleft with a brown bill. 

Henry VI— 2d, Aet IV., Se. X. 

Servant. My lord you have one eye left. 
Cornwall. Lest it see more, prevent it. — 
Out, vile jelly ! 

Where is thy lustre now? 

King Lear, Aet III., Se. VII. 

Like a strutting player, — whose conceit 

Lies in his hamstring. Troilus and Cressida, Aet I, Se. III. 

Thy bones are hollow. 

Measure for Measure, Aet I, Se. II. 

Thy bones are marrowless. Maebeth, Aet III, Se. IV. 

A dying Moslem, who had felt the foot 
of a foe o'er him, snatch'd at it, and bit 
The very tendon which is most acute— 
(That which some ancient muse or modern wit 
Named after thee Achilles) and quite through't 
He made the teeth meet. 

Byron — Don.Tiian, Canto VIIL. Verxe LXXXIV. 

84 



PART VII. 

PHARMACY. 

Pharmacy was not overlooked. 

I do remember an apothecary, — 

And hereabouts he dwells, — which late I noted 

In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows. 

Culling of simples: meagre were his looks, 

Sharp misery had worn him to the boues ; 

And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, 

An alligator stntf'd, and other skins 

Of ill-shap'd fishes ; and, about his shelves, 

A beggarly account of empty boxes, 

Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, 

Kemnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses, 

Were thinly scatter'd to make up a show. 

Noting this penury, to myself I said — 

Au if a mau ueed poison uow, 

Whose sale is present death in Mantua, 

Here lives a caititf wretch would sell it him. 



y What, ho ! apothecary 



O, true apothecary ! 
Thy drugs are quick. 



Romeo and Juliet, Act F., *S'c. /. 



Romeo and Juliet, Act V., Sc. III. 



He did buy a poison of a poor apothecary, 
ly And there withal came to this vault to die. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act F., Sc. III. 

Bid the apothecary 
Bring the strong poison that I bought of him. 

Henry VI— 2d, Act III., Sc. III. 

Your master will be dead ere you return ; 
There's nothing can be miuister'd to nature. 
That can recover him. Give this to the 'pothecary, 
And tell me how it works. 

Pericles, Act III., Sc. II. 

Great griefs, I see, medicine the less. 

Cymheline, Act IV., Sc. II. 

85 



MEDICAL THOUGHTS OP SHAKESPEARE. 

That drug-damu'd Italy hath out-craftied him. 

Cymheline, Act III., Sc. IV. 

One, whose subdu'd eyes, 
Albeit unused to the melting mood, 
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees 
Their med'cinable gum. 

Othello, Act v., Sc. II. 

Set ratsbane by his porridge. 

Kinrj Lear, Act III, Sc. IV. 

I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, as offer to stop it with 
security. 

Henry IV— 2d, Act /., Sc. II. 

I would the milk 
Thy mother gave thee, when thou suck'dst her breast, 
Had been a little ratsbane for thy sake ! 

Henry VI., Act V., Sc. IV. 

If you have poison for me I will drink it. 

King Lear, Act IV., Sc. VII. 

I have bought the oil, the balsamum and aqua-vitae. 

Comedy of Errors, Act IV., Sc. I. 

1/ Give me some aqua-vitte. 

Borneo and Juliet, Act III, Sc. II. 




NOV -3 1S4S 



